Children and Fighting..

Although I'm not a parent a situation came up recently that got me thinking. When your child is being picked on in school, should you encourage them to fight back or teach them to walk away? I've always been taught that walking away is better and that fighting never solves anything. Maybe that isn't always the case though, it seems that these days some parents are teaching their kids differently.

How parents teach their kids may also depend on whether the child is a boy or a girl...boys may be expected to fight back while girls are expected to walk away. The size of the child may also play an important part, if he is a smaller boy he may be picked on more because of his size or if he's bigger than most other kids they may expect him to be tougher and fight more.

Some parents may see their kids as wimps, crybabies and weaklings if they don't fight back and the child may fight just to please their parent. It's a very mixed up message to send to a child. With all the violence in our world today, encouraging fighting would only make more violence.

I've also seen some girls that can be just as mean and vicious as any boy out there. I've seen news articles about girls ganging up to beat up one girl or just recently a trio of girls took another girl out and dumped her in a wooded area with nothing but a party dress and a shoe on in 9 degree weather (she's having both feet amputated due to frostbite). I've seen articles of parents encouraging toddlers to punch it out to "toughen" them up.

When I was growing up, fighting was a big no-no whether you were a boy or a girl. You'd get suspended from school and then in more trouble when you got home. These days I've heard of kids getting punished for NOT fighting back...it makes no sense to me. We were also taught the rule that you treat others the way you want to be treated...but like so many other life lessons it too has fallen to the wayside and most kids aren't taught that anymore.

If I did have children, I would teach them that there are things in life you have to stand up for and fight for but physical violence is not the answer. There has to be a better way to solve your differences.

LIVE IN PEACE