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Bruised.


My son was physically assaulted at school two days in a row last week.

Evidently the perpetrators are known bullies who (I can see, from the perspective of a middle aged mother) are trying to establish their identity in whatever way they can. Heavy set and none too bright, they have chosen the "thug" route - presuming a negative presence is better than no presence at all.

I am a single mother, and it is at these moments that I feel the lack of a father figure most keenly for my kids. My response to being told he had been punched to the ground was - after commiserating with him - to tell my son that next time he needed to "JUST HIT THEM! HIT THEM HARD!"

Mumming up on the Christian parenting there. But seriously: 'Resist the Devil and he will flee from you.'

My son made it through the next day at school. However, that night and without thinking, his close group of buddies cut him out of an online game. On a level playing field this would have irritated him but, that day, it was game over. End of. Apocalypse.

Deeply distressed, he came into my room and said, "I can't go to school tomorrow, Mum. I can't."

What to do?

I wrote a blog for four years entitled, "Bash On Regardless" - the British ethos with which I myself was raised. And there is definitely a place for that.

However there is also a place for saying, "Fair enough, we fell under that onslaught. Let's draw a line under this week and try again on Monday."

He stayed home.

The war is on self-respect. And it's OK. You can lose a battle.

Losing a battle does not mean -

That you lost the war.

jsg/march 2019

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