Have you taught your children how to respond to bullying behaviors? Their response can mean the difference between stopping the aggression or escalating it. And what if they are a witness? Will they know how to be an upstander? There are also ways we can teach our kids to resist social pressures and not become a perpetrator themselves of bullying behaviors. Learn more about what we can do to prepare our kids. Check out…

Parents, Kids and Bullying Behaviors – What Can We Do?

“Ultimately, the only power to which man should aspire is that which he exercises over himself.”

-Elie Weisel

“You’re a horrible person,” was what I heard and deeply felt though I cannot recall the exact words that delivered this final crushing blow. It had come after a series of unconsidered and callous jabs and was interspersed with racial jokes directed at others that were, in part, responsible for the double crease lines between my eyebrows. This clearly was not my circle of friends though they had been the first and only ones I knew in an unfamiliar school in an unfamiliar community. And after many tears, my Mom had me convinced that the only way to deal with this hurtful situation was for me to screw up my courage and directly confront the girl of many mean words. And my Mom was right. Though it may have been the hardest thing I had done in my tender fourteen years of life, it was the most courageous and empowering. I took control of my relationships. I called her on the phone requiring the safety of distance and invisibility. I told her she had been cruel and she knew it. I wouldn’t take it anymore. “Just stop,” I said. And that was it. I’m not sure I muttered another word to her the rest of my high school years nor she me. And I was not only freed by getting rid of her presence in my life, but I felt a new sense of agency. I could face meanness and come away standing tall. Read the full article.