We as parents don’t even get to know when our little angels stop being angels and transform into bullies. It is difficult for us to find out that our child is bullying someone as they never come back home crying. But when a person of authority like a school teacher or some other kid’s parent informs you of such behavior, don’t just blame them for doing so. Talk to your child in all fairness and find out if there is indeed such a problem and if there is, you have to handle that right away. This should be your wake-up call. Sit up and nip it in the bud otherwise it might snowball into a huge problem which sadly will be out of your control.

How to recognize that your kid is bullying kids? Well this part is difficult. Mostly someone else brings it to your attention. There are some signs to look out for -Your kid might show extreme aggression at home and also tries to challenge your authority.

But you feel your child can do no harm. First of all the parents themselves have to accept that there is the problem that needs to be fixed. Denial of the situation can only do more harm to your child  than anybody else. The kids who are bullied will eventually move on in life. But a bully who grows up to be a bully will be quite lonely and will keep wondering “why no-one likes me?“.

What can you do about it? Try talking to your child and find out why he is doing it. There a bunch of reasons that might be causing this behavior. Here is what you can do to help the child:

• Make it clear to your child that you take bullying seriously and that you will not tolerate this behavior.
• Make clear and consistent rules within your family for your children’s behavior.
• Do not show aggressive behavior if they break a rule or two. Teach them by example that there can be gentler methods to solve a problem.
• Until the matters are resolved there has to be more adult supervision of the kids to keep them out of trouble.
• If the school is trying to solve the matter, stand with the authorities, sending out a loud and clear message that bullying is unacceptable.
• Praise and reinforce your children for following rules, this will make your child feel better about themselves and will feel no need to pull others down to be better.