There’s a bully in our preschool. All the kids are afraid of him. He hits, kicks, screams, throws toys at them. He’s younger than all the other kids, but they couldn’t handle him in the toddler room so they put him in the preschool room with the older kids. Logan has come home with bumps and bruises and it is almost always because of this little boy. The teachers do what they can, but he beats on them too. I’ve never seen a more difficult child, and it has been hard for me as a mother to have my little boy coming home hurt every other day he goes to preschool.
I have to keep Logan in the campus preschool because I still have another semester of classes, but it’s hard to send him when he’s afraid of getting hurt every day. I tend to be rather overprotective of Logan as it is, but this brings out the real Mama Bear in me. Logan tries hard to play with all the kids, even when they are mean to him, but it isn’t always easy. I didn’t realize quite how bad it was until I started volunteering in his class and saw it first-hand.
A part of me wants Logan to fight back and stand his ground, but I also don’t want him to become a bully either. He’s been through so much already, I wish that I could protect him from everything, but I know he will learn valuable lessons from going through things like this. It is important for children to learn how to deal with bullies now while they are young, because people aren’t always going to be nice to them when they are older. They need to know how to interact with people who aren’t always kind. Teach them to be strong and not let people walk all over them, but it is also important to teach them to get along with people. As a mama bear your initial reaction is to rush in and rescue your child, but sometimes it’s better to let them figure things out on their own and talk to them about it later.