Sometimes things suck

There are a couple things on my mind today. Bad things. Things that make me sad. Things that really suck.

Yesterday, my sister and I were talking about my oldest niece and she told me that there is now a new kid on the horizon at school who is bullying my niece. Which really bothered me. Probably more than it should have.

I can't help but be bothered by it. I was bullied at school. And I know what it's like when you're in that situation. And no matter how old you get, you can't escape the bully.

Needless to say, my first instinct is to get in my car, drive to the school and start kicking some eight year old ass to get it out of my niece's life. But I can't. Nor can my sister get involved. Other than to teach my niece how to deal with these situations. How to get out of these situations. How to handle herself.

When I went to the school last Friday, I noticed all these posters up on the walls about bullying. How to be a good friend. How to respect one another. How to treat each other. No matter how many posters you put on the wall, it's still going to happen.

So I started to think about how it happens. Why it happens. What to do about it happening. When to get a parent involved. And how to fix the situation. You see, it's not something that my niece brought to my sisters attention. She learned about it inadvertantly, when she asked where my nieces mitts were. This bully took them. Because she wanted them. Because she could.

My sister in turn called this child's mother. And the mother agreed to send them back. But my sister has a feeling that the mother may be playing into the behaviour by not dealing with the situation appropriately. By allowing her child to get away with it and just sending the gloves back to be taken home again.

I had some colourful responses my niece could use in response to this kid. Including my personal favourite: if you touch me again, I'll punch you. Which, of course holds the adage "two wrongs don't make a right" as true, but still, how do you deal with this situation? Apparently this kid is about three times the size of my niece, which makes the punch comment a moot point. My niece will get creamed. My sister wanted to have her say "my dad is a cop, don't even think about it" but my brother in law can't be there when this kid decides it's all talk and no walk.

I hate it. My sister hates it. My niece hates it. Everyone else in her life hates it. It's not fair and I wish there was a good solution to the bullying problem. My niece is a good kid. And it's hard for the good kids to get away from the kids who don't like the good kids.