What a great way to start the hols (ds?s school broke up yesterday!)?
ds (aged 8) came running in yesterday afternoon in floods of tears. The children he?d been playing with had been discussing who in their class they disliked the most ? ds of course. They?d also been telling him that he?s really weak and made a point of climbing somewhere they know he can?t get to (his teacher and I think he?s mildly dyspraxic).
Sooo? What would you say to him? I told him what I thought of the other children?s behaviour (in politer terms than I used when talking to dp later that evening!) and as for the ?weak? slur I trundled out the ?we?re all good at different things? line. I also said that children really are horrible to each other sometimes unfortunately, and (I?m not sure if this was the right thing to say at all) that sadly it might happen again so perhaps we might need to think of a good thing to say back to people if it does.
I told him not to let them see you cry ? is that wrong do you think? These children were being really horrible for sure and this time his reaction was fairly proportionate but at other times (most of them actually) he overreacts BIG TIME. Some less thoughtful children (to put it kindly) seem to wind him up just to get the reaction and ds could really do with growing a thicker skin..
DP later offered to help ds learn to climb better over the hols, which I thought was a really constructive response. But what would you have said? What do you say if your dcs are being bullied?