My Little Masters of Change

                       

I just love these little boys to death! This was them last night at Rancho ward's trunk-or-treat . Anyways, on a totally different note...being a mother I'm constantly thinking of all the many different things I want to teach and impress upon my kids as they grow up so that they will eventually grow into functional, good, happy members of society. One of the things I was thinking about this past week was bullying. While growing up at one point or another my husband and I had both been bullied. (I'm sure it's something that everyone has unpleasantly experienced.) It would be so heartbreaking to ever hear about any of my kids getting bullied and even more horrifying if I ever found out they were a bully. I've often thought about how I would deal with it if my kids found themselves in either position (and obviously we would assume our kids would or could never be "that" kid, "the bully", but we don't live in a perfect world and our kids aren't perfect.) The wearing of pink shirts and passing of anti-bullying bylaws have been in recent news. Don't get me wrong, I'm all about the anti-bullying movement but is that really enough? There is no way we will ever completely eliminate bullying just like this world will never completely have world peace (in this life at least) -simply due to the fact that there is opposition in all things. As my kids grow up and eventually go through school and come in contact with many more different people and build new relationships, they WILL in some way become hurt by others intentionally. As they learn and grow I want to teach and help them to have great inner confidence that no insecure bully can break and also how to cope/deal with "mean" people instead of "playing victim." For me, it's crucial that my kids know and understand how to be MASTERS OF CHANGE for them selves and for society, rather than play victim. I won't always physically be by their side 24/7 but my husband and I can help them gain the ability to stand up for themselves. And of course, we will teach them to be kind, charitable, tolerant individuals to hopefully insure that they will never be found on the "bully side". Parenting isn't easy but this issue is one of the many things I hope to be found successful in as I continue to teach my kids each day.