It seems that parenthood includes the problem of our children being bothered by a bully, one way or the other.

 I have polled that problem and found a variety of suggestions. It seems there are some basic approaches but they all have their drawbacks. The following are some common methods used by good parents across our nation, and across the globe.

 This was the basic question for the polls conducted: Have your kids ever had to deal with a bully? What advice did you give your child?

 1. “I told my son to try and reason with this kid and see if he could turn the other kid to being a friend. When that didn't work, , I told my son to skull-drag the punk's a$$.” – (This was an answer from Australia, it was also a method suggested from England.)

 2. “I told my son to walk away. When that didn’t work, I visited the school. Now, the other children call my son a ‘mommy’s boy’”. – (This was a common approach. Sometimes it worked, and sometimes it didn’t.)

 3. “Stand up to a bully and you'll get beat up once. Run away and you'll get beaten a thousand times. Bullies are cowards by nature. If you stand up to them they'll eventually leave you alone and seek easier prey.”  -- This approach was commonly espoused, but had some bad consequences.

 4. "Yes. I told her to ignore whatever the girl said to her but that if the bully laid a hand on her, she could give her a punch right in the mouth. When the bully bothered her again and pushed her from behind, she turned around to slug her and the bully ran off and has left her alone since then. That was 10 years ago. Sometimes you just have to call their bluff. - " -- The problem with that approach is that some bullies will run away, and some will not. 

5. “Wow, that has been a few moons ago, but all three of my sons have had to deal with bullies, in one way, fashion or another....I tried the *turn the other cheek* , talk your way out of it, turn and walk away, it seems with most kids those things just do not work, at least not often.... Being boys, it seemed it always turned into violence in small or at times large ways.... *Sigh*...” -  This was a common frustration expressed by concerned parents.

 6.”I landed-up taking my sons out of the large school and putting him into the alternative one, same school system just a smaller more controlled environment..... It seemed to work, but, some of the problems still follow him to  this day.... but to answer, I tried it all, some times we parents just have to stand and bite our nails and let the children work it out...” 

 7. “I suggest going to the school and kicking up a fuss about it all.. go in with ALL the facts you can get, talk to every student you can about the situation and the bully...... Talking to parents, other parents of other kids this same bully(s) has picked on, and see if you ALL can stand together in this......”  -- Apparently, a well organized plan. The problem? Most parents/children will opt for “not getting involved” at the last minute.

 8. “I advised my son to king hit the sob and then keep kicking him until he begged for mercy in front of his friends, my son was suspended for two weeks and never had trouble again, only way that really works 100% with bullies.” -- Hostility for hostility

 9. This is my advice. This is the 2^nd part of my essay on the subject of bullies.

 My son came home from first grade bruised and bloodied from a bully.

 "Curtis, you will need to avoid that bully for a while. But, soon you will never worry about another bully the rest of your life."

 I took him to a sports store and bought him a set of hand grip exercisers. Everyday he worked with those hand grips. Within a very short time, about 6 months, he could make those hand grips click to the sound of music.

 "Now what, Dad?" 

 "Son, whenever anyone bullies you, simply shake his hand or grab his wrist (in a friendly manner) and squeeze." -- We both started laughing because it was (and is) so obvious what a bully would do if he or she knows that you could break their hand or wrist by simply squeezing them like squeezing a sponge. (No child would get suspended for simply shaking hands with a known bully.)   

 It's never too late to start with those hand grip exercisers. They would probably work great to stop a mugger also.

 

** As usual, I invite anyone who reads this to tell me about any poorly written sentence or any poorly conceived idea in my essay.