Bullies not only in school yard

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As a mother I have always feared my children being bullied.

Both my son and step-daughter have come home from school at some point with tales of being teased.

It may be over small things now, but you can never tell when a small thing can become big.

A friend of mine told me about a young girl whose mother discovered a secret stash of food under her bed.

The food items were special treats the mother had packed in her 10-year-old daughter's lunchbox, with love.

The mum was devastated to find out that her daughter hid the food after being teased about eating it at school, because, according to some other kids, she was "already fat enough."

How do you protect your children from bullies like these?

All you can do is to love and encourage them to believe in themselves, and teach them not to be bullies themselves.

But from what I have seen, the bullies are not only just kids in the playground.

They are often parked outside the school, waiting to pick up their kids.

They get out of their vehicles for a chat with other mums, while parked right beside the 'pick-up only, no parking' signs, ignoring other vehicles in the queue who are waiting to do the right thing.

Pushing in, not letting others through - all classic bullying actions if you ask me.

They also turn right at the signs that state no right turns during school hours, holding up traffic behind them.

They plain and simply ignore road rules in general while on a mission to drop off or collect their precious cargo from school.

What sort of role model are we to our children when we ignore signs that are put there for their safety.

After all - we are sending our children to school to read and learn.

Chances are they can read those signs their parents are ignoring.

Children learn by example, so just what are your children learning from you?

By watching what we do, our children's characters are molded, for better or for worse.

We all love when our children imitate our actions, repeat our words or copy our mannerisms.

And while I know there are plenty of bad habits my kids will pick up from me, I am determined that being a bully is not one of them.

Super Mum by Sharyn O'Neill

Twitter: supermum1972