Easing the Teasing : Helping Your Child Cope with Name-Calling, Ridicule, and Verbal Bullying

Rating:
Summary: My child is no longer teased! Thanks for the techniques!
Review: This is truly the best book about grade school teasing on the market! I didn't know what to do and my 8-year-old daughter didn't want to go to school anymore. She is a very sweet capable child. However, she has a wandering eye that often looks cross-eyed. She wears very thick glasses and is a bit shy. First she no longer wanted to ride the bus because of 2 kids that continued to call her "buggy bug eyes" and other mean things. So, I began driving her to school because the name calling was breaking my heart. Then after 2 weeks, she began to cry that she no longer wanted to go to lunch or out to recess and I didn't know what to do. The social worker was working with the teacher to discipline the teasers, but the behavior was still going on. The parent library at my school had a copy of "Easing the Teasing" and I read it and worked with my daughter. We practiced responses that she felt she could tell the teasers. She actually enjoyed these role playing rehearsals at home with me. And, after 10 days, she was ready to go on the bus and try them out. Her favorite calm responses were "Really?" or "So?" which really caught the boys off guard. Her reply communicated to the teasers that the put-down really didn't matter or bother her. It's like shrugging your shoulders. Two days later on the playground she responded confidently to the taunts with "Do they look like grasshopper eyes or bumblebee eyes today?" That moment was the end of being called " buggy bug eyes"! Although my child is quite shy, with enough practice and "self talk", she was able to do this and proud of herself that she solved the problem. Thanks Judy for a superb book! I'm sure this will help so many children successfully put an end to the cruel teasing while enabling them to nurture their own self-esteem at the same time.