Being bullied at school

is something most of us have experienced I suppose. Perhaps most people, if honest, would say they did some bullying as well.

I did not bully anyone that I am aware of. The simple reason for that was that I was, for the most part, "the teacher's kid".  I would not have dared to consciously bully anyone. If I had done so and word had reached either of my parents I would have been severely punished, more severely than other children. 

Other children knew that of course and many took advantage of it. If I said anything about my hair ribbons being ripped out or my plaits being dipped in ink (they could be back then) or being told to hand over my piece of fruit at lunchtime I was not supported. I was simply told to "stop telling tales" or "I am sure nobody would do that" or "you must have done something to deserve it". There was no sympathy. I was told to "toughen up" and told not to be a "crybaby". 

The examples I have given were often the least of my worries but I do not think my parents thought the problems were serious. They most certainly were not serious enough for them to intervene. Other children could nicely judge just how far they could go at any given time. I just retreated into books instead.

It was much the same for my brother. If he had been more interested in playing "footy" it might have been different. He read and made things.

We almost never had other children over to play or go to their places to play. I can remember the actual occasions on which this happened because they were so few.  My brother was trying to recall one recently and having trouble. We both remember having Sunday lunch at a nearby children's home when our parents needed to visit our mother's aunt. The aunt was in what I now know to be a violent marriage and we children were being shielded from that information. C...and her five children moved in with us after that. They stayed until the then "Housing Trust" found a house for them. It took some months. C.. was also a teacher but no more sympathetic than our parents when it came to bullying.

We coped of course. We had to cope. I have no doubt that there were children who were bullied far more badly than we were but we were bullied. We were also expected to handle it ourselves. If it had reached the level of serious violence the adults would have intervened. They intervened in school yard fist fights and stone throwing was a very serious offence which resulted in canings for the boys and ruler slaps for the girls.

I wonder if bullying is worse now or whether there is more awareness. Is the emphasis on it in schools a good thing? Is it easier to do it using social media? (I suspect it is.) And, this is a serious question, is it more serious now because children lack the negotiation skills we had to learn in order to play with each other?

I would be interested to know that.