I will always teach my son to defend himself. With bullying being so prominent now, I have thought about this over and over. My son is by no means “the little guy,” yet he has still been put in a situation multiple times, which has resulted in him being bullied.
At first, we taught him to “tell the teacher,” or as any good Christian, “turn the other cheek.” However, this went on for weeks and weeks with no avail. We also talked with him about removing himself from the situation, but that obviously wasn’t working either. Every day our son would come home, telling us about how this little boy was punching and kicking him for no reason on the playground. A few times here and there? Yea sure, maybe, but every single day since the first day of school? I don’t think so.
I had finally had enough last week, and after talking, my husband and I agreed to tell our son it was ok to defend himself. I want to stress the DEFEND part. We explained that he should never go overboard and not antagonize or hit first. We explained what it meant to DEFEND himself and what to do.
Well, don’t ya know, after having this talk, our son came home after school and told us that he had defended himself. He said that the other child had punched him in the face and was kicking him, so our son punched him back ONE TIME. At this, the little boy said, “a very, very bad word that we don’t say, mama,” and FINALLY left him alone.
I will probably get tons of flack for this, but y’all, I WAS SO PROUD! He didn’t hit him multiple times or engage in a fight or anything like that. It just took that one time to stand up for himself, and that was that. I try my best to teach my children to be loving and caring and that it is ok to ask for help, but sometimes, you just need to plain old stand up for yourself. That is a lesson I will also teach them over and over again, and one that we can all learn from.
What are your thoughts on self-defense? Do you have any unpopular parenting techniques you use for your child?
