What do you mean by “try and make things nice”? Have you considered therapy for your child OP? It’s not normal for a 7th grader to come home and cry about something so trivial as name calling. |
Also, don’t tell him to make nice. He needs to ignore the kid or tell him to F off. Crawling back to be nice won’t work with a bully. |
PP again and I agree. This is an opportunity for your DS to learn the difference between joking around and someone being a bully. In either case, a make nice response is not appropriate. He needs to learn to stick up for himself. |
| Welcome to middle school! Kids swear at each other, your child just needs to toughen up. No tattling for something as trivial as being sworn at. |
OP's CHILD needs to ask the teacher not to be paired with this kid again. Mommy should not be involved in 7th. |
+1 I have a feeling Mom is over involved and now her child is paralyzed with fear and can’t do anything for himself. |
| It's hard to answer this without more context. Some kids just get rough with their language and might not have meant the words the way your kid heard them or anticipated your child's reaction. If that's the context, it's not bullying, it's a failure to communicate. On the other hand, the other kid may have really meant it the way your kid heard it, which is at least more concerning and is bullying if it continues. If you feel confident that it was bullying, telling the teacher is an appropriate next step but that accusation is going to trigger certain processes that are meant to protect both your kid (from bullying) and the other kid (from unfair accusations). I would want to be sure before talking to the school. |
| Stop coddling your child. |
|
1. OP you need much more context.
2. A single name-calling incident is not bullying. 3. Some middle schoolers cuss. 4. Some name-calling is targeted and cruel. But some is just in jest. Some is blowing off steam. Some is a bad attempt at communicating a legitimate complaint. 5. Your DS needs to learn to interpret a situation. You need to help him do this. Without more details, we can't advise you. 6. Until you do #5, don't worry about the teacher. |
The second kind of banter happens ALL the time, and is 100% not to be taken seriously. The response is often along the lines of ‘Eff off, you idiot’. This sort of stuff happens between friends and kinds that get along. No one gets hurt because it’s genuinely not meant to be taken seriously. |
I agree. Swearing has become part of our vocabulary like it or not. But being called stupid is cruel. Ask your son how it happened. Did he make a mistake? Give a suggestion that the bully didn’t like? Get the details and practice what his response should be. |
OP, you are trying to solve the wrong problem. You are looking outside instead of inside. You should not be debating whether telling or not telling the teacher will result in the other kid retaliating vs your kid losing faith in you as an advocate. That might work for this one instance, but what happens when the next partner calls him f’ing slow? You should be teaching your child tools and advice on how to respond to insults. Look at your child and realize that he has a lifetime of mean comments and undeserved slights coming his way. We all do. Are you going to try to swat each one away? Or teach him how to be resilient and learn to do it himself? |
I disagree. Her child is sensitive, and it obviously hit a nerve to be called “stupid.” It was a pretty unkind comment. I’m not saying her son doesn’t need to develop resilience, but let’s not pathologize his reaction; it’s within the range of normal. He didn’t cry at school, and he obviously trusts his parents enough to open up to them. |
I respectfully disagree. |
| Everyone here would run to HR if a coworker said this to them but calls a child the p word for getting upset. |