My daughter is a third grader. She goes to school, which is far from home, so we bring and take her by car. We don’t let her go by herself yet, because she may not understand public transportation. Until recently, Anna had no problems with her teachers and classmates — everything worked out in the best way.
One day my daughter came home in tears. She said that a boy from the 4th grade was hurting her. He speaks ugly words to her, pulls her hair, gets her clothes dirty. My wife and I didn’t interfere at first, because we wanted the children to try to sort out the conflict situation themselves. But the boy began to behave even worse — he attacked my daughter with his fists and did not count on his strength.
I decided it was time to take the initiative. My conversations with the teacher and the principal were fruitless. They advised that Anna did not go out of the classroom during recess and did not see the offender. Maybe she shouldn’t go to school at all? What kind of nonsense is that? The bully, as it turned out, was hurting not only my daughter, but the other kids too. Everyone who was younger and weaker.
I may have chosen not exactly a pedagogical method, and you’re going to judge me now, but I wouldn’t have taught that boy any other way. No amount of talking to him helped, so I had to resort to radical methods.
I showed my daughter one good self-defense trick. She’s a sporty girl, she has strength. That’s why I was sure she would succeed. It took us a few days of training, and then my daughter was determined to take action. She wanted revenge for all the hurtful words said to her. She punched the offender in the nose so hard that he started bleeding.
They took him to the infirmary right away. He was crying so much that all the children were looking at him. The parents immediately rushed to the principal’s office. Naturally, Anna and I were called there. They began to scold my daughter in public. Like, how could she hit such a good and quiet boy. He, you see, doesn’t touch anyone.
We had too many witnesses, so justice was served. We, of course, did not wait for an apology, but he never went near our daughter again. Anyway, he was done with his hooligan past.
Are you judging me? What should I have done? I don’t think there’s any other way to deal with kids like that. He thought no one would punish him. Parents raise their children in permissiveness, and society reaps the rewards.
