There are many issues that we may face as a child but perhaps the one that all of us have faced at some point in our lives is dealing with a bully. For some people, it may be the fact that they were bullied at a very young age and it tends to happen on the playgrounds, but it can also happen at home. Other people tend to be thought of more as the bullies, but if you look at what is going on behind the scenes, you often find that they are mimicking the behavior in their household. Hearing about this can really be heartbreaking, especially when we realize that bullying has not gone anywhere in recent years.
An example of somebody who is being bullied is the 9-year-old girl in this story. Nicole O’Shea is the mother who wrote about her little girl and the consequences that can occur when bullying is a problem. It affects children from a very young age and sometimes, it continues to affect them for many years to come. When you read what this mother posted on a popular Facebook page, you can see the heartbreaking consequences for yourself.
“She’s 9,” Nicole wrote.
“Nine years old and already learning what it feels like to have her heart broken by the unkindness of the world. She already knows what it feels like to have her peers comment on her body, her face, her clothes, her family.
She’s been called too stupid, too fat, too ugly, too poor, too loud, too huggy, too wild, too messy. She’s been uninvited because she’s not pretty enough, skinny enough, happy enough, funny enough, liked enough.
Those words don’t hurt me because I know they’re not true. I know she’s enough. What hurts me is how broken those words make her. What kills me is how she believes the naysayers of the world instead of her mama, the person who knows her best.
And that, my friends is why we HAVE to learn to love ourselves.
These babies are watching us. They’re learning how to love themselves by watching how we love our own selves. They CANNOT hear us when we tell them they’re enough because they’re too busy hearing us tell ourselves we’re not.
I vow to erase self-hate from my life. I promise to learn to appreciate who and what I am without exception. I will love me. Because me loving me is the only way I can teach her to love her.“
Nicole wanted people to imagine what it would be like if their children were in such a situation.
She continued: “If this hit you in some kind of way, I know it’s because you’re picturing your own kids and the struggles they’ve seen. I am one mom of one daughter and our story is not unique. It’s the story of every mother and the daughters they’re raising.“
But we aren’t here to dwell in the heartache. We’re here to breed confidence and resiliency in the hearts of our babies. With that in mind, I want to hear from the mamas and the aunties and the grandmas and the teachers, and all the women who have little girls looking up to them …
I want you to picture that little woman you’re helping to shape and promise me right now you’re going to start loving yourself the way you want her to love herself.”
Bullying is a problem that has to stop. When it does, we will see that the world is moving forward as it should.
