Recently, a city in Wisconsin voted to fine parents whose children were found to be bullying other students. Bullying is a very real problem, and I applaud this city to be trying to do something to change bullying in schools.
We all want our children to first, not be bullied in school…and we also want them to not BE bullies themselves.
With all of the “stop bullying” campaigns out there, I’m glad we are doing something positive to stop it. It’s a great thing! We can go home, pat ourselves on the back, grab a glass of wine and then go back to social media proud of ourselves.
While we are there, we’ll tag some friends as a joke on a meme of an obese woman that says, “Tag someone who would ‘hit’ this”. We’ll all laugh about it and never think about it again, except to laugh and make more jokes at the expense of the poor woman on the meme.
We’ll watch our friends facebook news feeds and share a picture of a mentally disabled adult with a funny caption and laugh about how “retarded” our own friends are.
We’ll laugh and joke over the latest social media hilarity, shame someone publicly, and then we’ll jump on the proverbial band wagon and assume the same ‘mob mentality’ over and over again at the latest “OMG” happening.
After we’ve signed our petitions, tagged our friends, ranted about how ‘unfeeling and dumb’ our own family is and made some crude remarks online anonymously like keyboard warriors…we turn around to our children and lecture them.
They are following in the footprints we leave behind; yet we chide them, yell at them, threaten them to STOP doing the very same thing we do- without even realizing it.
Stop sharing the meme’s making fun of people! Stop sharing the nonsense BS post that you never fact checked! Stop taking pictures of folks down on their luck and making fun of them! Stop taking pictures of folks who are NOT caring about fashion in Walmart, just so you can make fun on them and laugh at them!
Stop online bullying. Make a collective HUMAN effort across the globe to be more aware of how our words and actions really do effect those around us.
We are the bullies, and social media is the perfect outlet for our online bullying…and we don’t even think about it. Our children are watching us. They will become us, and later…they will be the ones who take over the world.
I can honestly say that I have NEVER shared a bullying picture…and that my children have never seen me bully anyone. You can fix a lot of things in your life. You can fix anything if you set your mind to it, but you can never fix or take back a cruel and unkind word or action. I did however bully kids in school, and to them I apologize.
Bruce, Wisconsin, Mid 90's... Annoying foster kid here, who thought I was THE Shit.... I was unkind to you in school. I was mean. I was snotty. I acted as though I were better than you…and I was NOT. I am not now. I was just a dumb kid all full of myself.
How rude and inconsiderate I could be. I made you cry in the hallway and even though I laughed and walked away…I felt deep down that I was wrong. I KNEW I was wrong. I should have stopped right then, helped you and apologized. But I didn’t.
I am sorry.
If I learned one thing from that, it is bullying doesn’t become me. I can do far more damage than good with my words, and yet somehow, someway every positive post might help someone else if they have been bullied ( I was too. So it made no sense for me to hurt another. I KNOW how it felt.) or it might help someone realize how their seemingly inconsequential behavior does harm others.
The next time we jump to “STOP BULLYING” let’s remember who the bullies are and work to stop all the negative actions and postings. We can all make a difference! So why don’t we REALLY try to nip bullying in the butt…starting with ourselves and our social media postings. Then and only then when WE stop sharing humiliating meme’s and being inconsiderate, can we stop our own children from doing the same.
