A Fellow Parent Swears Their Son Is Being Bullied. They Just Don’t Want to Admit What He’s Really Like.
There is a parent in my child’s kindergarten class who is convinced their son is being bullied. From the first day of school, they’ve been interpreting what I see as normal kindergarten behavior as bullying.
Also: I volunteer in the classroom once a week, and (from what I can see) their son is most often the instigator of these scuffles. He kicks another kid, they throw wood chips at him in response. He pushes when they’re standing in line and doesn’t listen when the other kids and the adults tell him to stop; eventually, someone pushes back. The adults tell him to go to the “calm down corner” and he refuses.
This child is one of the few kids in the class who, unfortunately, wasn’t able to attend preschool. While the others know the basics of how to stand in line, write their names, and listen quietly as the teacher reads a story aloud, this is all new to him (and a couple of other kids). It’s normal, it’s fine—they just have some catching up to do! In the meantime, though, he has a parent who is forever complaining. Yesterday this parent cornered me with concerns about their son being “bullied” and “targeted.” They said another child had taken their son’s glasses at recess, thrown them down, and stomped on them. I did my best to be tactful. I said that the three adults in the classroom yesterday were the teacher, a classroom aide, and myself, and we didn’t see that. (In reality, I spent all of recess yesterday playing soccer with the kids, including his son—who takes off his own glasses regularly and throws them when frustrated. But the parent clearly doesn’t want to hear that.) Do you have a script in case I’m cornered again? Or do I just need to keep repeating, “That’s not what I’m seeing” and tell them to go talk to the teacher?
—Vexed Volunteer
https://slate.com/advice/2024/12/parent-bullying-school-adjustment-advice.html
About Post Author
