Do I talk to the parents of the child bullying my child?

For more information on elementary education visit KidsInTheHouse.com

For more information on elementary education visit KidsInTheHouse.com

TRANSCRIPT:

In any bullying situation if you have 2 kids together at your house or you hear about a bullying situation, the question parents always wrestle with is “do I call the other parent?” It’s a very risky question and it’s not a simple answer but I’ll try and answer it.

With younger kids it’s maybe appropriate to let a kids parents know during a playdate that there’s an issue because it’s still the time where kids are formulating relationships and parents are more apt to hear because they don’t expect their kids to have all these skills but kids who are 7, 8 and beyond may be really upset number 1 that you may want to call a parent because they don’t want to be more humiliated and here’s the risk, if you call a parent who you’re not very friendly with or you don’t know extremely well the risk is that that parent will tell their child and that child will get so upset that they’re going to bully your child further after that situation happens.

So unless you are very close to a parent and understand them and have a relationship that you can trust and then you say to that parent “Listen, our kids got into an issue. Can you find out what happened? I’ve been hearing things, I’ll check with mine, we’ll get together and work it out.” Unless you know that you can do that with the parent, I suggest to not call another parent because you’re putting your kid at further risk potentially.

Dr. Haber is available for speaking engagements and consultations to help your combat your school or workplace bullying issues.

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Author of Bullyproof Your Child For Life

Dr. Joel Haber