Thursday, November 3, 2016

Three Important Things You Need To Teach Your Child(ren)

Bethany Thompson was a cancer survivor who had her brain tumour operated on twice. She was given a new lease of life with the success of those operations; her parents must have felt really grateful that their baby scaled that large obstacle and defiled death. Their joy was cut short however when Bethany committed suicide because the kids at her school kept making fun of her appearance which was as a result of the treatment she received.

I’ll allow you take that in and imagine how many people have been thrown into darkness by the insensitivity of the other children in Bethany’s school.

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This story left a really bad taste in my mouth and it also stirred up a lot of emotions in me as a parent and a person that has survived bullying. 

I had some very low times too but I was lucky to get past that period of my life and realise that bullies act the way they do to cover up their own insecurities. Not everyone is as lucky as I am as it is evident in Bethany Thompson’s story. 

Bullying has claimed a lot of lives and put many more in mental prisons.
This places a tall demand on parents to do something real quick to help this new generation. We cannot afford to have more hatred to be spread across mostly because of narrowed perceptions that could have been corrected by us if we teach our children to be sensitive about other people’s plights.

In the wake of this recent event, I want to share the tips below with other parents and guardians hoping it is/may be useful in breaking this evil.

We need to teach our children to be compassionate.  
The unpretentiousness of children can be fascinating and damaging at the same time. Children are probably the most brutally honest beings in the world and while their honest remarks might make them seem adorable some times, other times the remarks can come out as insensitive.

Our children need to be taught that the world is more colourful than what they know. We should raise them to be more open minded and tolerant of other people’s beliefs, appearances, cultures and what have you. We need to let them know that there are many normals outside their own perception of normal and that they have to consider other people’s feelings before talking or acting them.

It is a great disservice to our world if we don’t do our jobs in guiding and raising these children to have good values. We live in a large community where if one of us slacks, the ripple effect is felt through the entire community.

We need to teach our children about the importance of a healthy self-image.
Since we can’t control how every parent guides their children, We need to make ours understand that they shouldn’t allow themselves to be limited by other people’s perception of them. We need to constantly remind them how powerless other people’s words or actions are if they understand who they are.

Let’s save our world by stepping up in our duties as parents. Bullying can be reduced if we all take the oath to do right by our little ones.

We all should make it easy for our children to speak to us about whatever issues they are going through.
This will make it easy for us to know the right steps to take to help them should they be going through rough times.

I believe there are many more tips that can be shared in order to combat this ugly disease. If you have any, kindly use the comment box below.

May the souls of the departed rest in peace.

2 comments:

  1. Yikes @ Bethany. that's harsh.
    But the cure for bullying (both victim and offender)... hmm. Bcos I was bullied, told my parents, that didn't help. told school authorities, made things worse.
    things only got better when I fought back. literally.
    I know not everyone has the strength for that but for a kid (or even adult) having a strong self image really helps in facing off against a bully

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    Replies
    1. I can imagine how helpless you must have felt, my mum literally told me to fight back and she did a great job of making me feel good about myself. Fighting back can work sometimes but the key is really having a great self image.

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