As a mother of preteen girls I have my standard worries of handling teenagers and their rollercoaster hormones and growing up challenges but my biggest worry is this… Bullying and it’s consequences, I thought that it ended with my generation and god knows we had our share of it with body shaming, insults and ostracizing but I expected this generation to have wiser parents who will take a feather from their experience hat and steer their children away from this invisible yet gigantic issue.

Aside from adorning our sweet little mini me’s with the latest iPhones, designer bags and make up palettes that will plug their pores how about injecting a huge bout of empathy and compassion? I had to struggle with changing schools because the administration did not know how to properly deal with this issue and dealing the parents of the bullies is useless which is expected; bullies become bullies because of defected upbringing or wrong role models.

Tweens and teenagers will have their share of conflicts but I plead to parents to talk to their children about this and raise them in a way that they don’t become bullies nor become silent victims of bullying. The consequences are devastating and can result in a lifetime of low self esteem triggers.

Don’t forget this, lead by example not just rules and words. If your child hears you nonchalantly make fun of someone or terrorize them they will become like you thinking it’s perfectly fine, don’t raise a generation of bullies…