My Son Stood Up for the Kid Who'd Bullied Him

I could see it on my son’s face the moment he walked through the door: Something had happened at school. He had just started a new school the week before, and things had been going well for him — until now.

“This boy was making fun of me for no reason” he relayed to me. I inwardly cringed, knowing how sensitive my son could be. It was picture day, and the boy had been mocking my son and imitating his expression. Instantly, I felt transported back to my own middle school days — to classmates who could have been perfectly cast in the movie Mean Girls, endlessly taunting me for developing early and having curves when they were still rail-thin.

My son, however, is not me. While he is sensitive like his mother, he is also more confident — and his bullying response taught me a lesson I will never forget. Because the very next day, that kid who had bullied my son was bullied himself. And what did my son do? He stood up for him.

For me, middle school was rough all around. I was forced to leave a solid group of friends behind for a new school that was filled with wealthy students I couldn’t relate to. Cliques were formed within those first few days, and I didn’t feel like I belonged anywhere. It’s a tough time of life for many kids; hormones take over, and kids can be surprisingly cruel. That’s why, as my eldest child left the security of his familiar elementary school, I felt just as apprehensive (if not more so) than he was as he embarked on this new beginning.

My advice to my three sons about bullying has always been: Don’t enagage. Stand up for yourself, but stay away — and find friends who will treat you well. If the bullying persists, bring it to the attention of an adult. I tell them there will always be bullies, but the vast majority of people are good and kind.

So, because of these lessons, my son stood up for himself the day he was bullied. Still, I could tell when he relayed the incident to me that it had really bothered him; he brought it up in conversation a couple more times that same day. He also talked to his younger brothers about bullying — and about how, so far, middle school was neither fun nor easy.

The next day, however, he had a different story to tell.

The next day, in band class, the boy who had bullied my son was having trouble playing his trumpet. A group of kids seated behind him started teasing and mocking his inability to play a clean note. It was at this moment that my son stood up for him — the same boy who had mocked him just a day prior — and told today’s bullies to turn around and mind their own business. The bullies stopped, and the boy was left speechless.

When my son relayed this anecdote to me, my face must have revealed my shock. But my son went on to guess that “maybe he was having a bad day the day he picked on me.”

I couldn’t have been prouder.

My son hadn’t taken my advice to “just stay away” from bullies. Instead, he did something much better: He was the bigger person, standing up for someone who was being singled out, and choosing not to judge his classmate based on one hurtful altercation.

Society has adopted a no-tolerance policy to bullying, and mostly, I think this is a good thing. But it’s important to remember that we’re only human; everyone has bad days, and middle school kids in particular are certainly still learning what behaviors are appropriate. Sometimes, they are going to make mistakes, especially when pressured by their peers.

I’ve even noticed, as a mom to three boys, that boys will often tease their friends (sometimes relentlessly) as a form of bonding. I have warned my sons that even when done in jest, words can still hurt. Yet, there is a difference between two friends teasing each other and a student singling out another student and mocking him in front of his peers. This behavior is hurtful, and my son has told me in the past that he will always step in when this happens. He proved this in a big way by standing up for a classmate that had bullied him only the day before.

It’s been a few weeks since my son was bullied and I recently asked him how things are now at school, and if he has had any further altercations with the boy who picked on him. “No, he’s cool now.” My son informed me. He says that they are not exactly “best friends” but that he has not bullied him since. My son handled the situation better than I ever could have imagined, and certainly more effectively than I had taught him.

Recently, my son giving his younger brothers more advice about dealing with bullies, and I had to smile to myself. I had been worried about how he would handle middle school, inundating him with advice and encouragement, when it turns out that he already knew how to deal with being bullied far better than I ever could have imagined.

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