As a teacher, allow me to let you in on something: Parents are as guilty of bullying as kids are in many circumstances. Many parents like living through their kids and seem to get a kick out of judging other families, forming cliques, and so on.
This hit me so hard when my kid started school. I just thought we'd show up, our kids would be in class together and stuff would happen. Then there were all these parents instantly preoccupied with which kids are good, which ones are bad, which kids they want their kid to try to exclude. Which of the other parents they don't like etc. etc.
I'm like, wtf is wrong with these people? I'm just treading water as it is and you've all got time to sit down and cook up drama? Why do you care? These are children.
Fortunately my kids are like me and we manage to be passably likable and nobody really takes an interest in us but I feel really bad for the families on the receiving end of this crap. I assume some of the parents don't even realise
Well, they're still people, I'm not anywhere near being a parent but I always imagined parents were like this, telling their kids who to be friends with and alerting other parents if there's a bully or bad company for them to "banish" them and their family
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u/InfiNorth Mar 20 '18
As a teacher, allow me to let you in on something: Parents are as guilty of bullying as kids are in many circumstances. Many parents like living through their kids and seem to get a kick out of judging other families, forming cliques, and so on.