Last night I, like many others watched the special that 60 minutes did on bullying and the approach that one father had taken. Nobody can deny that this resonated with so many parents, particularly those that may have already been affected by bullying. Having children all under the age of 6 I haven't experienced this yet so you may say I shouldn't give an opinion. However, I have been subjected to my own cases of social media bullying personally and I can see how easily it happens and how often it does.
If you missed this episode, a young girl had been the victim of severe bullying at the hands of her peers and her extremely worried dad felt he really needed to protect his child so he visited the place the 'bullies' hung out and confronted the bully. I see no real issue here, although watching it I did feel that this had the potential not to end well. Before we even saw what eventuated, I worried that this may end at the detriment of his daughter and wondered if she would not appreciate this happening in the first place. Once the father had said what he needed to say to the child, in front of his friends, he then said that the boy in question smiled at him in a leading way and he lost control and attacked him. It is relatively understandable that this happened because he was full of emotion and obviously very upset at what had been happening to his child and as a parent you are there to protect your children at all costs. But, does this really help? Does it really give the right message? 60 minutes questioned him and asked if that made him the bully. I've seen a lot of comments on social media this morning saying that this comment wasn't fair on the father and I agree to a certain extent as well. No, he wasn't the bully, he was a very concerned father trying to protect his child. However, I just can't condone an adult using violence against another persons child. This is the wrong message and it really then puts you on the same level as your antagoniser. As adults we need to model ourselves the way we want our children to behave. I believe there should be more involvement with schools and parents when this occurs.
I realise this post could be met with a lot of disagreement and again, I haven't experienced this yet with my own children, so I'm interested to hear from you. What are your thoughts on this? Do you think the father was up against a brick wall and felt this was his only option, or do you think he should have tried other methods?