Bully in the Making?

I was reading something an acquaintance wrote about her 5 year old daughter that is in kindergarten on Facebook and there was a lot about it that bothered me.

First, the post was about how her daughter punched a boy for making fun of her and calling her a boy.

Second, the fact that so many people liked her post and the comments were all very, let's say encouraging that the right thing was done.

Let's step back a moment. No matter the reason, no matter the sex of the child, whoever hits first is at fault in my opinion. By the time children are attending school, they should know that it is wrong to hit others. On the other hand, if my child were to get hit first then I am all for them hitting back. I do believe that people, child or adult, do have the right to defend themselves with the same force that they are attacked with.

Next is the whole girl/boy issue. We teach our boys that they shouldn't hit girls, we are the fairer sex. Well in my honest opinion if a girl hits a boy first, then power to the boy to hit her back. I know a lot of you out there will think that this is wrong, boys should never hit girls. I say too bad, so sad. If you are going to let your girls hit boys for teasing them, then they should be prepared to be hit back, especially when they are in the lower grades of school(K-4).

My biggest issue is with the adults. It almost sounded like my acquaintance was proud that her daughter punched a boy because she was teased. Then there are all the comments, coming from adults, about how it served them right, and awesome, and she did the right thing. Since when is it the right thing to hit someone for teasing you. Since when does it serve them right to be punched for saying something. I am actually a little disgusted with the fact that people are enabling and encouraging this kind of behaviour in a 5 year old girl.

We as a society talk about how bullying is such a problem in our schools. We talk about educating our children to know better and to act better. We have discipline systems in our school to teach respect and to talk about problems, not physically fight. We need to start educating our children at home, teach them right and wrong, teach them to use words and when it is appropriate to seek assistance from an adult. We have to be on the same page as our educators and our schools.

We also have to stop bullying where it starts, which is in our homes. We have to stop behaviour before it gets out of hand. We have to discipline, not enable and encourage when the behaviour has crossed the line.

I do hope that this little girl does not become one of the bullies, I do hope that there was some discipline involved and not just praise of her actions.