How to Identify If Your Child Is Being Bullied

No parent wants to discover their child is being bullied, and it’s definitely not something you think about when they’re attending elementary school. However, the sad truth is that bullying is starting to occur in much younger age groups than it once did. We started finding ourselves in the principles office, in kindergarten, due to bullying! Kindergarten!!!

I mean, we send our kids to school for an education, and over 43% of elementary school children report being bullied. That’s just the reported cases, many go unreported due to parents and teachers missing the signs. So, how can you tell if your child is being bullied? Below, you’ll discover some of the main signs to look out for.

Missing belongings and unexplained injuries

Two of the most common signs of bullying in elementary school are missing belongings and unexplained injuries. Does your child regularly come home from school without some of the things they took in? Books, clothes and toys are just some of the belongings a bully may take from another child.

Unexplained injuries are also a tell-tale sign of bullying. Physical bullying tends to be more common in boys than it is girls. However, it’s still important to remember that both genders are capable of partaking in physical bullying.

The key thing to remember here, is that it’s common for young children to both lose things and injure themselves. So, you’ll need to watch out for frequent incidents, rather than a one-off scrape on the knee or them coming home one time with a shoe missing. One kid actually stole my sons bookbag and jacket! We had to call the parents and say send them back!! No, it wasn’t a gift, what the heck?

Emotional changes to look out for

The majority of children who are bullied tend to show more emotional signs of being bullied than physical ones. Have you noticed a significant change in behavior recently? If your child tends to change before and right after school and appears much happier in the holidays, it could be a strong sign they’re having issues at school.

Many young children will refuse to go to school, or at least display a lot of distress before they have to go. They may also start to withdraw and become quite evasive; especially when asked about school.

Changes in their sleeping pattern Many young children who are being bullied, tend to have issues sleeping. It could be they don’t sleep as much, or they may even wet the bed. They could also experience more nightmares and be reluctant to get out of bed in the morning.

The issues in sleeping are related to a fear and anxiety response and should be taken seriously if they don’t usually have issues at night time.

The above are just some of the most common signs of bullying to look out for. You know your child so emotional changes will be easier to pick up on.

If you do spot any of these signs, it is worth asking your child if they’re being bullied. Some may not want to admit it, but if it is confirmed, you can then focus on getting to the bottom of the issue.

What to do if your Child is Being Bullied Finding out your child is being bullied can be understandably devastating. Bullying is a very common problem in schools, but it’s often solely associated with high school.

So, when it happens to a child in elementary school, it can be difficult to know how to approach the situation.

If your child is being bullied, there are steps you can take to deal with the situation. Here, you’ll discover what to do if your child is being bullied.

Talking with your child

The first thing you should do, is sit down and talk to your child. If you don’t already know, find out as much as you can about the bullying, so you can have the best idea of how to properly deal with it.

It’s a good idea to explain to your child that they need to tell an adult what is happening. Elementary school aged children can often be scared to tell an adult as they don’t want to “tell tales” on other children. The bully may have also made them scared to talk to an adult about the behavior.

Explain to them it isn’t telling tales and they won’t get into trouble. You can also say that sometimes bullies do tell you not to tell because they know they will get into trouble and they’re scared of that.

You can also tell your child that if they don’t speak up, the bullies will continue to do it to other children. So, to keep everyone safe, that type of behavior needs to be reported to an adult.   

Talk to the school

After talking to your child, you should also make an appointment to talk to the school. Find out what their anti-bullying policy is (if they have one) and ask what steps they will be taking to address the issue.

If you’re unsatisfied with the response, or the bullying appears to be continuing despite your initial meeting, don’t be afraid to go back and talk to somebody else. There will be a chain of command you can follow, so if one teacher isn’t taking it seriously, go to the supervisor or even the headteacher. 

What we did, is, I would email the teacher. If I didn’t have a same day response, I would call the princeples office. If I didn’t hear back, I would call the superintendent’s office. To the point to where the principle called me and said can you please give me at least an hour to respond. Maybe, I replied. Sometimes, me in my pj’s would march up to the school(drive around the block to the school). To that point of if the school had to call me, it was after 4pm. Really? I can’t call back and speak to anyone, and I can’t go up there after 4. Most of the time!

If that doesn’t work, you can try talking to the other child’s parents. Having a meeting (preferably away from the children) will help you to address the issue.

It’s likely the bully’s parents have no idea what is going on and often them finding out can make a big difference to how it’s handled.

Overall, the key is handling bullying is to talk. Talk to anyone you can until something is done about the situation. This will also show your child that if you speak up, eventually the bullying will stop. Be persistent and don’t give up.   Kids need to speak up immediately, when they see their friends either being bullied, or bullying.  Sometimes the ones being bullied are turning into bullies! It has to stop.  We have to teach our kids how to spot, how to report it.

One thing I haven’t seen in doing my research, however.  Is this. Why not walk up to the kid and say hey, want to be friends? That could eventually work. Go up to them and say what is so wrong in your life that you are bullying me? Have a conversation with that child.  It could stop it in it’s tracks. And bullies just aren’t always other kids.  More on that later!

What are your thoughts and ideas on bullying? Schools say that they don’t tolerate.  That’s a freaking lie.  They do.

Also, cyber bullying is huge. This is also needs to be reported and stopped! I reported the chief of police’s daughter for bullying my son.  She started threatening me to! I took screenshots of my son’s phone and immediately emailed them to the principle.  This was the day before the pandemic started. Go figure!