Remember the school bully who beat and gouged you from the moment your dad dropped you to school and harried you with his wayward ways, teasing, poking gags, pinching and even hitting you until you gave into his will? Always surrounded by a group of loyal compatriots, this bully definitely knew what to say and do to make you feel low and lost. Although you might have stamped down the roughshod by the time you left school, you can almost bet that the same bully who intimidated you with his unruly ways has now graduated from the classroom to the big bad world, reincarnating himself as a power-crazed manager, hard-nosed neighbor, a pompous colleague, or a pushy soccer dad. After all, someone once rightly said, “once a bully, always a bully”. However, before you take on the bully by his horns, it is important to identify the types of bullying to uproot the torture from its base. If you or your child is constantly peeved with bullying at school or workplace, then knowing more on the types of bullying should help you deal with the issue better.
Kinds Of Bullying
- Do you remember the overwhelming scalawag surrounded by an army of compatriots who kicked, chocked, poked and even caught you by the collar to scare the guts out of you? Physical bullying is one of the most common forms of assault where the victim has little defense against clenched fists and kicks. Physical bullying can have extreme repercussions and might even leave the victim psychologically stressed, gravely injured or even dead! Therefore, you should never brush off the aggressive advances of a bully or even feel intimidated by his acts. In fact, if you are too scared to knock out a punch yourself, you can always report to the concerned authority about the bully and bail yourself out of any trouble.
- Just like physical bullying, an emotional and verbal reprisal too can knock you off. Although deemed as a harmless act, at times teasing and taunting can trigger off severe verbal assault leading to a dreadful brawl. In that case, it is important to remind your kid the age-old saying- “sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never harm me”. In other words, teach your child to snub all such advances. Remember, one of the primary intentions of bullies is to provoke you by taunting you. Therefore, once their purpose is defeated, they will stay out of your way for good.
- Bullying has evolved rapidly over the years, extending its roots to online social networks and multimedia services today. Cyber bullying is one of the worse forms of bullying where a person is tormented, humiliated, embarrassed and even threatened via electronic media like emails, IM’s, social networking sites and mobile phones. Cyber bullying is often very dangerous as in most cases the parents are completely clueless about the going-ons. As a parent, you need to understand that cyber bullying is the only form of bullying where the victim can participate as aggressively as the bully himself, thus making matters worse. Thus, it’s important to equip your child against such cyber threats and save himself from the mental agony.
- Another form of bullying is social alienation. Here, a bully intentionally takes up on someone and alienates him from the group through bantering, spreading rumors and poking fun. Intimidation is another form of bullying when a bully threatens and frightens a person, forcing him to succumb to his will.
Remember, one of the best ways to deal against injustice is to wage a war against it. Don’t be a standby, rather stand up against bullying and put this manipulation to an end. Knowing more on types of bullying should put you in a better position to deal with this form of iniquity in a better way.