How to Bully Proof your Child

With a new school year starting having to meet new teachers, spending a bunch of money on school supplies, new clothes, new shoes and the occasional “I don’t want to go to school” you will have to deal with a fresh new batch of bullies. Bullying is all too real. Did you know that 25% of public schools report that bullying among kids happens on a daily or weekly basis? And that 1 in 5 high school students report being bullied in the past year? The good news is that because bullying has made national headlines, schools and communities (and even celebrities) are taking a strong stand against bullying. For real confidence and safety an ongoing self-defense program is a choice of many parents. Although it may be easiest for parents to tell kids to ignore the bully, walk away or tell a teacher, that is not always the safest, easiest thing for a child to do. Kids don't want to be in fear of school or other kids. Parents want to make sure their kids are safe. This is often a have/need choice. Kids and parents would rather have their kids know self-defense skills and not need to use then than to not have the skills and someday need them. HOW TO PREVENT BULLYING THROUGH MARTIAL ARTS Enrolling a child in a martial arts program is one of the best actions a parent can take to prevent bullying. Why? Because martial arts can help children on both sides of the bullying equation. By providing benefits such as confidence, discipline, respect, self-control, leadership, stress relief, and self-defense; martial arts helps both the children who are being bullied, and the children who are bullying others. Here’s how: How Building Up Confidence Can Stop Bullying Bullies pick victims that they think will be easy targets. What makes an easy target? A child who seems weak, unsure of herself, or easily scared. Martial arts helps stop bullying by building up children’s confidence so that they are able to project an aura of strength and ensure that they are not perceived as easy targets. How Reinforcing Discipline Can Prevent Bullying One of the factors that contributes to bullying behavior is an inconsistent approach to discipline at home. Martial arts helps prevent bullying by providing children with a clear-cut and consistent structure of discipline that helps them learn which types of behavior are acceptable and which are not. Victims of bullying can sometimes make things worse for themselves by acting in ways that make it easy for others to taunt or threaten them. Martial arts helps stop bullying by teaching these children the discipline to manage their own behavior in such a way that it does not in any provoke or trigger a bully. How Increasing Respect Can Stop Bullying Bullies have a strong need to be in control and exert their dominance over others. That’s one of the reasons why they bully others. Martial arts helps prevent bullying by showing these children that everyone deserves respect, and that no one deserves to be mistreated. Being bullied can often shatter a child’s self-esteem and lead to a low self-image and loss of self-worth. In fact, that’s one of the warning signs of bullying. Martial arts helps stop bullying by showing these children that if they want others to respect them, they first must learn to respect themselves. How Mastering Self-Control Can Prevent Bullying Children who bully others can be impulsive, hot-headed, and dominant. Martial arts helps prevent bullying by helping these kids become more aware of their own thoughts and emotions, and training them to control negative impulses that could lead to bullying behaviors. Victims of bullying often are not adept at recognizing what kind of behavior triggers a bully to lash out. Martial arts helps stop bullying by empowering these children to control their own behaviors in such a way that will stop a negative situation from spiraling into conflict or violence. How Developing Leadership Skills Can Stop Bullying Studies have shown that bullies lack empathy, and have also found that bullies can be more likely to develop anti-social personality disorder. This is a condition that causes people to ignore the rights and feelings of those around them. Martial arts helps prevent bullying by developing the capacity for empathy in these children. Bullies often target kids who are less popular. So if your child has few friends, this social isolation could put him at higher risk of being bullied. Martial arts helps stop bullying by training these children to be more sociable and helping them make friends more easily. In fact children who train in martial arts acquire new friends at the school. How Relieving Stress Can Prevent Bullying Bullies lack the ability to self-regulate emotions Often, they simply don’t have a way to control their anger and frustration, which may result in severe overreactions to small provocations. Martial arts helps prevent bullying by giving them an outlet to blow off some steam. This makes it much less likely for them to take their frustration out on other kids. One of the effects of bullying is that bullied kids often report symptoms such as coughing, sore throat, stuffy nose, headaches, and stomachaches. These kids are far more likely than others to report feeling physically sick because they deal with such high levels of stress that it wears down their immune system. Martial arts helps stop bullying by providing a way for these children to relieve stress through vigorous physical exercise. How Learning Self Defense Can Stop Bullying Children who bully others are often driven by the desire for power. They discover how effective it can be to use their power in an aggressive way to control and subdue others. Martial arts classes help prevent bullying by constantly emphasizing the importance of using martial arts for self-defense only, never for offense. As we mentioned above, bullies pick victims that they think will be easy targets. Martial arts classes help stop bullying by teaching children how to defend themselves. Once they are armed with this knowledge, they will naturally project a much more confident image and thus, not come across as an easy target for bullies. So whether you believe your child is either bullying or being bullied we can help. All our classes are high energy and super fun while reinforcing the family values you want your child to have.

RESPECT
DISCIPLINE
LEADERSHIP
CONFIDENCE
SELF CONTROL
CAN DO ATTITUDE

We are offering our annual HOW TO BULLYPROOF YOUR CHILD Workshop on Saturday September 28th, 2019 from 10 am to 11:30 am.

This workshop will cover the following.

Learn to recognize if your child is being bullied
Learn how to help your child deal with bullies
Your child will learn how not to be a bully's target
Your child will learn how to help others not get bullied
Your child will learn what to do if they are being bullied
Your child will learn several age appropriate self defense techniques if they are physically attacked