bountifulplate

Who else besides me thought the suicide last week of a 10-year old young man named Seven in Kentucky was a tragedy? Seven was bullied repeatedly because of a bowel condition he had no control over. Unfortunately, this was not this young man's first time at being bullied. In August of last year, he was choked on the school bus until he passed out. I have said before that I was bullied in high school. I never reported it to the school, because I feared it would make the problem worse, plus I had to see these girls outside of school because we played sports together. This is my own opinion, but I think empathy begins at home. If we raise our children in an atmosphere where racial slurs and making fun of others different than ourselves is acceptable, then why wouldn't we expect our children to be that way outside of our home? Empathy, according to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary means, "the action of understanding, being aware of, being sensitive to, and vicariously exper...

Last night, the hubby took me by surprise by what he said. I was telling him that Dominic and I would be heading to the high school to get his class pictures on Friday. He said, "I wonder if Dominic will be bullied." As one who was bullied in high school, it immediately brought back the feelings I try to keep buried, bubbling to the surface. I graduated 36 years ago, but it takes just a split second to feel that familiar sadness and anger. A definition of a bully according to the Merriam Webster Dictionary is: "one who is habitually cruel, insulting, or threatening to others who are weaker, smaller, or in some way vulnerable." There were a couple groups of girls that thrived on bullying me. They would continue to threaten me until I gave them what they wanted, to see me cry . I played sports with some of these girls, so at times it was very unpleasant. When I became a parent, I hoped that my children wouldn't be bullied. Unfortunately, Lauren went thr...

I've mentioned briefly in a previous post that I was bullied when I was in high school.  I graduated over 30 years ago, so I've had time to sit back and reflect about those times.  There is always something in the news about bullying.  It think it's a 1000 times worse now, because of the social media.  Bullying can take the forms of physical and verbal, both of which I think are equally terrible.  Two bullying  incidents in particular stand out the most in my mind from my high school days.  I remember sitting in the bleachers during gym.  One of the girls that was out on the gym floor thought I was laughing at her.  No matter how much I told her I hadn't been laughing at her, she started saying stuff like, "I'm going to beat you up later" and other things along those lines.  Some other girls observed what was going on and they said, "don't worry about her, we'll take care of it for you."  I didn't even know those other girls, but th...