Bully Proof Your Child - Morné Swanepoel's CombatCoaching.com

Why Bully Proof your child?

Bullying can be defined as intentional, repeated, systematic hurtful acts, words or other behaviour by an individual or individuals against another individual or individuals. Bullying is also when someone keeps doing or saying things to have power over another person. The behavior can be verbal, emotional, and physical. Did you know that bullying in schools is one of the greatest causes of depression, anxiety, sleeplessness and psychological problems among school-going children?

For thousands of children, the school is a battleground where they are subjected to physical or verbal abuse by fellow students.

Bullying is an age-old and worldwide problem and form of school violence. Because of the misperception that bullying is just a part of the process of growing up, many children keep quiet about abuse and many educators fail to take action.
This is in spite of the fact that it can have negative lifelong social, emotional, psychological and educational consequences, both for perpetrators and for their victims.

Victims often refuse to go to school or steer clear of certain areas of the school terrain. They struggle with poor self-esteem and can become depressed and withdrawn. In serious cases of bullying, victims have committed suicide. A new word has been coined for suicide as a result of bullying – it’s known as “bullicide”. Some studies have shown that bullying also has harmful long-term effects on the bully. Bullies often become involved in criminal activities later in life and struggle to form positive relationships with other.

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There are various different forms of bullying. Common examples include:

Verbal bullying includes such acts as hurtful name-calling, persistent teasing, gossiping and racist remarks.
Relational bullying occurs when the victim is deliberately excluded from activities.
Emotional bullying includes terrorizing, extorting, defaming, humiliating, blackmailing, rating/ranking of personal characteristics such as race, disability or ethnicity, manipulating friendships, ostracizing and peer pressure.
Sexual bullying includes many of the above as well as exhibitionism, sexual positioning, sexual harassment and abuse involving actual physical contact and sexual assault.

Why do some people bully others?

There are many reasons.

Those who bully may:

Pick on just anyone or choose their victim
Find that bullying pays (get what they want or admired by others)
aggressive and impulsive
enjoy feeling powerful over others
not be affected by the distress of the victim
believe that some kinds of people deserve to be bullied
see it as fun
have been influenced by aggressive 'models' (in real life and/or TV)
see the behaviour as 'pay-back' for some unfair treatment
be or have been victims themselves

Why do children get bullied?

Any child can get bullied just by being in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Sometimes children who are popular, smarter or attractive can be victims of bullying and then also those who seem easy to hurt.

Children can be picked on who look different or are different, came from a different culture or religion. Children who have a disability or are not good at sport. Children can also be targeted due to their size, age or strength and who lack social confidence.