What Are Your Kids Like When You're Not Around?
Another bullying video has gone viral this week. This time it’s a 68-year-old school bus monitor being poked and prodded with verbal taunts from 4 boys in grade 7.
As much as there is an outpouring of sympathy and support for Karen Klein, the first thought that hits me when videos like this go public is: what do the parents think?
The boys in this video are not anonymous. You see their faces, you hear their voices. The parents of the boys in this clip know it is their children that are relentless in their taunts.
How are they reacting? Are they aware of how their kids really are?
I asked the same questions of the movie Bully.
The bullying on the school bus was obvious, and non-stop. While we were sympathetic for the victims, you have to wonder if the parents of the kids who were bullying are aware of the kind of child they’re raising.
“One of my biggest fears. Finding out my kids are idiots behind my back,” Ariane Griffiths said on Twitter. “I see kids in the streets etc. and I always think that very thing – Gawd I hope my two arent like that outside of the house.”
I firmly believe my kid is great. He’s empathetic, and caring BUT .. .. what happens when he gets in a crowd? He started playing with guns because another boy introduced it in play group.
Would he bully someone to go along with the crowd?
It terrifies me.
We can do all the good parenting we can when they’re under our wing, but the moment they get in that crowd, they’re on their own. Let’s just hope the tools they’ve been given help them make the right choice.
The parents of the 4 boys involved in the attack are cooperating with school officials, and say their kids will be punished. I don’t know if removing iPod privileges for the summer is enough on this one. To taunt so relentlessly reveals a lot about their character, or lack thereof.
As a parent, that has to be truly frightening. How do you know if you’re doing your job properly? We can only try, and hope.
Max Sidorov saw the video and, a victim of bullying himself, asked the internet to pitch in some money to help Karen go on a vacation. She makes less than $16 000 a year as a school bus monitor, and Sidorov figured some sun and sand could do her good. He was hoping to raise $5 000. As it stands this morning, he’s approaching $500 000 in his effort.
What are your kids like when you’re not around? Have you ever wondered?
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Get more DadCAMP on Kid Scoop:
Bully Asks More Questions Than It Answers
When Kids And Gun Play Crosses The Line
I once came upon some tweens/teens yelling rude comments to a security guard at a mall, and I was appalled, and thought something along the lines of “if I EVER find out my boys are acting like that, they will be sent to military school.” I guess the best we can do is just start at a young age trying to teach empathy and lead by example. I hear about my really-tall-for-his-age 4 yr old boy hitting a younger kid (in retaliation for the kid taking a toy) and I immediately go on the offensive. We had multiple discussions of better options of reactions, about how the child is younger and may not understand, how he’s bigger and could hurt smaller ones, etc. I was so proud when this week my son told me that that same kid took his toy (and can I just butt in here and say WTF is up with kids not learning from their previous experience…if a bigger kid hit me the last time I took a toy, why in the hell would I walk up to that same kid who has anger control issues and take another toy, but I guess that’s how it is in the preschool set) and my son asked him for the toy back and explained why he needed that piece, and the kid gave it back. SO PROUD! And he was very proud of himself for controlling his behavior. And I guess we just keep moving forward.