Last Saturday, I was at some friends’ celebrating the end of rugby season (or rather trying to make it last a little bit longer!) with my husband and two boys. We are not talking adult rugby but Under 9 , so the driveway looked a bit like a school playground gone completely mad with around 15 tough kids running wild!
At one point, I went looking for my 8-year-old as he was nowhere to be seen, and found him, upset, hiding behind the house. He told me that one of the other boys had “bullied” him. I never got the full story but from what I understand, the said boy probably said something mean and carried on playing.
I then realised that my boy often wrongly referred to times when someone did or said something mean as “bullying”, so I explained the difference. I truly believe that, unfortunately, too many kids (and grown-ups) rush a bit too quickly into labelling disagreements or arguments as “bullying”.
Funnily enough, the day after, as I was browsing my Facebook page, I came across a great definition of “bullying” that I want to share with you.
I wish I had written it but I haven’t! The picture is #BNVALENCIA and I understand that it was written by a teacher and pinned on a classroom wall.
It reads as follow:
“It is bullying?
When someone says or does something unintentionally hurtful and they do it once, that’s RUDE.
When someone says or does something intentionally hurtful and they do it once, that’s MEAN.
When someone says or does something intentionally hurtful and they keep doing it even when you tell them to stop or show that you’re upset, that’s BULLYING.”
Absolutely on point and would be worth having in all classrooms!
