Literally every day now, mini-G comes home from school and at least one boy will have been an arsehole to her to some degree. She’s 9. But, hey, ‘boys will be boys’.
Last time we mentioned this, we were told she ‘needs to be more resilient’. When we suggested victim blaming wasn’t good, we were told things will get worse at secondary. When we said, OK, what specifically should she do, we were told… she should be more resilient. She was shouting today. The boy just carried on being a dick.
I'm a big fan of psychological warfare where possible to get subtle and devious revenge.
The school should be doing more about such behaviour and making sure no pupil is getting away with being unpleasant to other ones.
Our lot got revenge eventually when we were allowed to play hockey against the boys. They were savaged. Some boys thought they were too butch for shin pads. They regretted that very quickly.
@serichards Mini-G is tiny – one of the smallest in the year. One of the boys is a year older and massive. So from a physical perspective, she’s massively outmatched. And that’s what some of the boys are now doing – using their size to intimidate. (They’re also starting to flirt with sexual intimidation and making the girls doubt themselves more broadly, even though they don’t really know what they’re doing. That sort of shit should be stamped out. Instead: girls should be more resilient! FFS.)
@serichards At this point, it’s relatively mild. That’s the problem. The boys are mostly just being really obnoxious. But they know what they are doing. And mini-G has already had her PE kit once nicked and ‘hidden’. (We never found it – had to buy another.) And this kid’s started mucking about with her lunch bag now. So: email into the school today. We’ll see how things go.
@HauntedOwlbear They’ve been fairly quick to act in the past, although it appears their tipping point is physical violence or severe physical intimidation. But it’s something. However, I’d argue that when you have severely disruptive kids that are getting ‘red points’ every single day, your system cannot cope and you need to be doing something else.
All women: well, obviously. I know. But it’s astonishing that from the youngest age, this crap is accepted – even encouraged. We were told in infant school they sat kids boy/girl to ‘moderate boys’ behaviour’. Now, in juniors, boys are getting away with bullying and various kinds of intimidation at the age of 9 or 10. Not all of them. But too many of them.
Sometimes I just want to take my kid, give her a big hug, and hide away forever.
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