Last night, I spoke to Parents at a local Elementary school. One of the parents asked an important question:

She told us about a time when her middle schooler confided in her about some boys at school being mean to him. She went to his teacher and told her what was going on. The teacher then spoke to the other boys and stopped the teasing. Her son felt betrayed that his mom went and told the teacher. She wanted to know how she could have handled the problem differently.

I think we need to teach and encourage them to confront bullies.Tell the bully to “stop.” Start there and then see if you need to take it to the next level. Sometimes, we dive in too quick to help our kids, and they miss out on the life experience of dealing with adversity and bullies. Ultimately, you need to know what your child can handle, and helping them through this situation should be a learning experience.