More than half of youths who are bullied fail to tell an adult about it. Parents have a role to ensure that schools and communities are safe and fair for their children. This means helping the child to identify, reject, report, or help another person being bullied is as important as training your child not to bully others.

Here are a few things parents can do.

Communicate with children:

Parents must find time to speak and get to know their kids. Talk to them every day about anything. Tell them how your day went and ask how they did. Tell them your problems and try to get them to offer suggestions to you. This way, you can also get them to open up and tell you their problems too. Most importantly, talk about bullying and the need to report it as soon as they identify one.

Raise children to be respectful and helpful:

Right at an early age, parents must stress the importance of good values. Teach them to respect their peers, be kind, resilient, responsible for themselves and others, to know how their actions can affect others, and so on. Help them to appreciate that personal success is not everything, but the ability to care for, help, contribute and make a positive impact in society is more important.

Teach kids how to respond to bullying:

Parents must listen to their kids. Get them to be calm to tell the whole story. Let them know you are concerned. Try to develop a plan with them. Do not be too quick to jump into the school or confront the perpetrator’s parents. Offer simple solutions that will encourage him to work on the problem. Most importantly, keep a close eye on them and learn more about how they are improving or overcoming the problem.

Work together with your child’s school to stop bullying:

The idea of discussing bullying with school authorities can be overwhelming. But not working with them is worse. Try to be present at Parent-Teacher meetings to raise your concerns. Find out what the school policies are, and if there are anger, stress, and emotional management classes for kids. Ask about how these classes are done. Ask about some ways that support staff (e.g. bus drivers and janitors) can help. Ask about how you can also help them to make the environment safe for every kid in the school.