I feel like I've almost had enough of reading the threads on MN where men are clearly manipulating and emotionally abusing women, and parents have such a hold over their children that they can basically do whatever the chuffing bollocks they like to them, and where so-called friends just keep on using people time after time. It's hard to read these things repeatedly.
My son is 8. He has a friend who is already showing signs of behaving like a user. Everyone "likes" him, wants to like him, and he has clearly got used to being able to say whatever the hell he likes to them (and take what he likes), causing anguish and strife, but at the same time they gravitate to him. After an incident yesterday, I sat ds down and gently warned him that some people seem to have a kind of power over others, and that the best thing to do is to RUN A MILE and stop caring what they think. I gave examples from work, but I could have given examples from my friends, my family, from here.
I'm just fed up with it. What is wrong with us as a society that we don't DO something about these people? There's a group of people who are almost never told their behaviour is appalling. We're all guilty of it I bet, I know I am: not speaking out when these turds abuse us. The trouble is when it happens to us, we're too involved to see it. We can usually spot it from outside though.
We teach out kids how to stay physically safe, but we're not so good at teaching them how to stay emotionally safe, and how to spot charming, manipulative people who will end up taking and abusing. Why not?!