Those Bully Boys!!!

Poor Sasha's been copping it the last few days from some mean little boys. Last night we had dinner at McDonalds (between picking Sasha up from Day Care & going to the Playgroup Meeting - David was away, so it was all quite rushed). Anyway, after the girls had eaten we went outside to the playground for them to have a play. They were having a ball climbing up the steps & coming down the slide. They were the only kids in there for a little while.

Then a whole influx of kids came in from several different families. One of the other parents came in with his daughter, the others were left to play unsupervised. One little boy (he only looked about 2/2.5) started hitting & pushing the girl whose dad was in the play area. I mentioned it to him & told him to keep an eye on him. About 10 mins later the same kid was on the steps ahead of Sasha & wouldn't let her up. She was patiently waiting & he just lashed out at her. She looked quite shocked & unsure how to handle the situation. I told his not to hit her & luckily (for him) his parent came & took him away.

Today I took the girls to Playzone which is an indoor play centre on the outskirts of Fremantle. I hadn't been there before & wanted to check it out as we are thinking of having our Playgroup end of year parties there.

This time, I caught a kid throwing balls at Sasha, and few hit her in the face/head.

Then there was another real meany of a kid who pushed her over with a real shove, and then yelled at her everytime she was anywhere within sight. He was about 4ish and quite a bit bigger than her. I went up & spoke to him & told him to leave her alone & that I'd be keeping my eye on him - he barely paid any notice. The thing that really p'd me off was that his parent/s were nowhere to be seen. He was on the top level where the 'big kids' can play, and even when Sasha came down to the toddlers area underneath he was still yelling at her. Geez I was in such a mind to go hunt down his parents & let them know what a little brat he was!!

And finally there were two other boys who wouldn't let her in the ball pit when they were playing in there. They were yelling at her to go away.

I guess though, I'm just as disappointed at myself for not knowing how best to handle the situations. What is the best advice for dealing with bullies? I don't want her to feel threatened, I want her to feel she can rely on me for protection, I want her to have confidence to stand up for herself, I don't want her to put herself in harm's way, I don't want her to be 'dobber' - oooh, I'm so confused.

FWIW I know that all kids at that age can be pushy or rough, & many of them will hit/kick/push/bite despite what parents do to try to teach them otherwise. But this kid was not supervised, & if either of my kids had tendencies to do these things, I'd be watching them like a hawk. Grrr to your pathetic parents kiddo!!!

Poor Sasha - I wish she didn't have to deal with bullies, but I guess it's just a fact of life. Now I just need to work out how to help her deal with them.