Last week, Parents Ask expert Dr. Ann Corwin shared a letter from her website from a concerned mother who's son was bullied right in front of her own eyes. Dr. Corwin offered some tactics on how to handle these situations and whether or not parents should step in. Today, Dr. Corwin consoles another concerned parent, who's trying to teach her son how to stand up to his bullies:

Q:  Yesterday at school my son (4th grade) was bullied by 3 5th grade boys. In walking down the back hill at our Elementary school, the three 5th graders tried to eat and tear apart his candy haunted house they had just finished making in class. Then they pushed him and pulled the house causing him to fall down.  The creation was ruined. My son did not do anything in return in fear of getting in trouble so he and his sister told me.  I mentioned the incident to school officials and they are currently handling it. Do you have any words of advice on how I as a mother should best handle this aftermath with my son and his feelings?



A:  Really the only sure-fire why to get your son away from aggressive inappropriate kids is to sit him down and tell him exactly what to do when someone mistreats him and then have him report to you every time he does the behavior you teach him.



Then tell him in these exact words, "You should be so proud of YOURSELF because you know exactly what to do when someone treats you badly"!  This will get him to 'own' his response to other kids and that helps build his confidence.

So here's the idea of what to say to him, but you do it of course in your own words...

You say, "As soon as someone hurts you with their words or their bodies, you immediately stop looking at them, turn around walk away and do not say anything".  The message you want bullies to get loud and clear is that you (your son) will not have any kind of relationship with them when they treat him this way.