Teaching Our Kids to Shine Bright

I am a ‘ShineBright’ Ambassador and have been compensated for my participation. All opinions are my own.

As the mother of three, bullying is something that was on my mind when my kids started school. I worried about how children might treat my child and I worried about how they would respond. I worried that they wouldn't know what to do or that they would feel they needed to keep everything inside. I cannot help it, I know that kids can sometimes be mean.

I was amazed at how early bullying seems to start in schools. My son first experienced bullying in Kindergarten when another kid would call him names and was mean to him on the playground. He didn't know what to do and it took him almost a week to tell us. This broke my heart but also inspired me to take action and to talk to my kids on a regular basis about bullying. We needed to establish a dialogue and firmly root into our children that bullying is NEVER ok no matter what.

TALK TO YOUR KIDS ABOUT BULLYING

Bullying is something that we discuss a lot in this house. We talk to our children about being bullied and being a bully. They know and understand the difference. They also know that neither one is acceptable and to tell an adult as soon as either one happens. PACER’s National Bullying Prevention Center offers some great resources to help parents including the PACER Shine Bright toolkit.

Teach your children to Shine Bright!

DO MORE WITH RUDOLPH

Whether you missed “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” the other night or even if you watched it you can do more with Rudolph. The holiday classic is also an ebook – “The Legend of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer”. Purchase the book, and $1  from each purchase will be donated to PACER’s National Bullying Prevention Center. You can also get a “ShineBright” t-shirt, and a portion of all sales will be donated to the cause. For more information or to purchase the eBook or t-shirt, visit PACER.org/ShineBright.

Acceptance, respect and diversity are something that every child needs to learn about. Watching Rudolph is an excellent way to start the discussing and PACER's National Bullying Prevention Center website is an even better way to keep the conversation going.

Visit PACER’s National Bullying Prevention Center website for more of the discussion and activity guide, eBook and additional tools and resources helping to put an end to bullying.