Bullying and Cyberbullying - way to educate your kids in 15 minutes

Last week, I worked with 300+ kids 9-12 years to help them understand how to recognize a bullying situation, the boundaries in cyberbullying and practicing empathy. The response of kids is fascinating - so smart and so pure! One of the reasons I love working with children.

I am happy to share 3 parts of how you can have these discussions.

1) What is bullying? - a simple definition to remember

Simple definition for kids (let's cut the noise around it and simplify): Bullying is

a) when something is done that hurt someone

b) is done repeatedly

Parents whose kids were bullied will recognize how schools aren't able to handle this discussion well. It's a hot potato. Usually, they boil it down to "but there was no intent" or "no one was physically hurt". Let's make it clear - intent is not needed at that age. Action is.

Conversation to help your kids:

Give your kids these situations from my workshop and ask them to recognize bullying.

Situation 1: Lion Leo calls Turtle Tim a "slowpoke" every day during recess and laughs with his friends. Is this bullying?

Situation 2: Elephant Ellie accidentally bumps into Giraffe Gina while walking and immediately says sorry. Is this bullying?

Tell the kids to ask others if they felt hurt. Move away from assumptions

Part 2: Crumbly paper game

Give kids a paper and ask them to crumble it completely. Then open it. Ask them for their observation: "Is the paper as smooth as before?"

Then tell them - other kids are like this paper. Share the message in the pic below.

Remind them -everytime they are mean again in the future, they should think about the "CRUMBLY PAPER"

Part 3: Cyberbullying (Based on Memifriends' Netsmart game)

Best way to do this is have a discussion with the following situations. Ask for their advice. Have a discussion on why or why not?

• What shall I never share online? (Politeness, Toys or Personal Information)?
• My friend asked me to send the pictures from our swimming pool lesson. Should I?
• There is a game online, where if I hurt myself, I get extra points. What should I do? (Play it/ Talk to a trusted adult/ Ignore/ Play with a friend)
• I am playing a game and someone I don't know wants to add me as a friend. Shall I let him?
• Someone said something hurtful to me online. What should I do? (Ignore/ Talk to a trusted adult/ Tell my friend/ Insult back)

Playing this game will help you understand the state of your child.

Finally, what kids want from us as adults

Question I asked to the kids: When bullied, what would you like from the adults?

Looking forward to hearing your thoughts. Please share how you think about this topic.

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