What do you teach your child to do when s/he is getting bullied? I tell mine to fight back the best he can, he won't mess with him again.

That's a tough one. When they are bullied in school and they are not allowed to hit back, it's hard to tell the kids to hit back knowing that they will probably get in trouble themselves. I always would tell my kids to go to a teacher or other adult and let them know what was going on. If it didn't seem that the school was doing anything about it then I would request a meeting with the Principal, teacher and the other parents.

If it's a neighborhood thing then you can do any number of things. I would get to know that parents of all the kids in the block. My parents did the same thing. They would have a big summer get together. Everyone was invited. It was a good way to see how all the kids interacted and for the parents to see what was going on as well.

DCMerkle

I don't plan to teach my children to "hit back". Two wrongs don't make a right. I'll just tell them to go to a teacher or other adult authority figure and explain to them what is happening.

When my kid is young I will teach him to find a teacher but at age 13ish I would hope, if he is getting bullied he would stand up for himself.

It's surprising to me that some of you encourage your children to fight back. Not only can they get into trouble for fighting, they can also get hurt. Aren't you afraid that you'll end up raising a bully?

Fighting is never good, always better ways to work out problems.

Hitting back is never the answer because it spills over to other things in their lives. As they get older they should be able to reason things out. It they are older they should also be able to understand that some things just aren't worth reasoning out because if the other person is not on the same page than it's a losing battle to begin with.

seeker

Working things out is an important life skill. You need to have good people skills to function in society and you cant do that if your a bully during your childhood.

This is tough for me, luckily my son isn't old enough to get into fights, I am a softie myself, and I don't want my son being like that. I think I would tell him to be just as agressive back to the bully and make a reputation, just don't do it to defenseless kids.