Katie Couric reported on Tuesday that 160,000 children stay home from school daily - not because they are sick or because of a math test, but because they are scared. They were afraid that a bully would harass them or even try to hurt them physically.
1 in 4 kids gets bullied every day... that's 13,000,0000 incidents a year.
You may have seen this past week a news report about a high school girl, Whitney Kropp, was elected to the homecoming court as a hurtful prank by classmates. She bravely went ahead and attended the dance in West Branch, Michigan, wearing a donated dress as her entire town rallied around her.
Also making the news, anchor Jennifer Livingston of WKBT in La Crosse, Wisconsin, a mother of three daughters, is bullied about her weight, accusing her, essentially, of being an unacceptable role model for her community. This does not help remedy our country's excess weight - drugs, sex, greed, gambling issues, etc. ...shaming someone at their core will not fix it.
Let's get something perfectly clear: this is not just an adolescent problem. Bullying is an "entitlement" problem that has filtered down from what's been happening in families, business and communities at large.
We have a generational legacy of pain; hurtful and unnecessary ways of treating each other in the name of... "I'm entitled to my opinion and that's all that really matters no matter who it hurts, no matter what's really going on - because I've learned to be far too arrogant to even consider what my words and attitudinal energy will do to another ..." and THIS is being passed along generation to generation.
While Jennifer Livingston recognizes that this man may have been well meaning, he is lacking effective skills to be helpful to anyone. Thus, he will not be making a positive difference and he will be blown off by most as just another person with intentionally hurtful bully tactics. (He is currently standing firm on what he wrote to her because he's entitled to hurt or mame in the name of believing himself to be right.)
It's TIME ... to get to the heart of the issue, period!
October is National Bullying Prevention Awareness Month, so for the next 24 HOURS ONLY, I am giving a 33% Discount for my UClick&PLay Victim No More: Diffusing Bully Behavior Program in the hope that you will get off the fence on this!
You don't have to feel like you are a deer in the headlights of an oncoming speeding vehicle, ever again. For all of the press that bullying gets, I have to say that we can all strive to be so much more effective, if only we would take three short hours to learn how to see what's really going on with a "new lens" and exactly how you CAN be instantly effective in intense situations.
If this has been problematic for you, watch my Complimentary Video Series on what the Significant Research explains about the BRAIN and Bullying. I am certain that there is something for you in this video ... go watch them at: makeadifference.com/VictimNoMore
Simply demanding that the person using bully behavior "stop it" isn't enough. You have to teach people how to access their own inner core hurts, fears and beliefs followed with specific skill directives. That's where Victim No More: Diffusing Bully Behaviors comes in.
We never regret what we do, we regret what we don't do.
33% Discount ENDs at 5:00 p.m. Eastern Time Thursday
Reaching out ...
Mary Robinson Reynolds
Founder, Heart Productions & Publishing
MakeADifference.com
PS ... and while you are at it, click here to listen to our newest audio recommendation just in from a H.S. Principal who took this program to her entire faculty and staff just last week! Knowledge truly IS Power!
Heart Productions & Publishing, Greater Boston Area 800-249-6587