“Leanne, why you don’t want to go to school today?”
Often a child will suffer in silence.
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“Michael, how come your teacher says you don’t want to go out outside during recess?”
“Suzie, how in the world did you get that scratch on your arm?”
“John, why are you so sad?”
Do any of these statements sound familiar? If so, your child may be suffering from what best-selling author Frank Peretti calls a “wounded
spirit.”
Sadly, at any age your child may come under attack from one or more children at school or in your neighborhood. Often, a child will suffer in silence for weeks or months on end — embarrassed to say anything about the problem.
As parents, you and I need to become better informed why
bullying can be so harmful to our son or daughter.
Then we need to take action on three fronts:
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We need to determine how to deal
decisively with bullies in our child’s life. Our son or daughter needs to know we’re
taking their problem seriously and want to do all we can to help and
support them.
-
We need to reduce our child’s exposure
to violent media. The last thing we want our son or daughter
thinking is that intimidation and harassment are somehow a normal part
of
life.
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Last but not least, we need to watch for warning
signs that our
child’s
spirit may have been terribly wounded.
