What is Bullying? How do you know if your child is being bullied at school, a social club, Sunday school, a youth club or even around where you live or the kid next door?

A bully wants to hurt the other person (it’s not an accident). A bully does or says the same things over and over again. Bullying is about using power over another person. There are four main kinds of bullying.

Physical:  • hitting, shoving, kicking, spitting on, beating up on others
• damaging or stealing another person’s property
Verbal:     • name-calling, mocking or hurtful teasing
• humiliating or threatening someone
• making people do things they don’t want to do
Social:      • excluding others from the group
• spreading gossip or rumours about others
• making others look foolish
• making sure others do not spend time with a certain person
Electronic: using e-mail, cellular phone or other forms of social media and text messages to:
• threaten or hurt someone’s feelings
• single out, embarrass or make someone look bad
• spread rumours or reveal secrets about someone

So, bullying is the physical or psychological intimidation that occurs repeatedly over time. Bullying can be overt (i.e., teasing, hitting, or stealing); boys are most often overt bullies, or, Bullying can covert (i.e., spreading rumours or exclusion); girls are most often covert bullies.

So now we know what it is, how do we know if it is happening? see tip #3