Parent Guide | Ways To Tell If Your Kid Has Bully Behavior

Bullying occurs when a kid uses force or hurtful threats or teasing to abuse or intimidate other children. They often repeat the bully behavior, and it can become habitual. Statistics reveal that 90 in every 100 kids in grades 4 to 8 have reported cases of someone bullying them. What's more? 28 in every 100 kids in grades 6 to 12 have been bullied.

Why Should We Pay Attention to Bullying Behavior?

One of the reasons why children start having bully behavior is that they think it solves their social problems. They believe that bullying other children is the easiest and best way out for them. Parents should pay attention to their kids' behaviors. You need to understand how your relationship with your kid affects their behavior in general.

A child who has been raised with good morals can never display any bullying aspect when they grow up. Take the necessary action when you notice any weird behavior from your child. The earlier you decide to address the problem the better. Strive to always have a positive and healthy relationship with your kid. This can help to prevent any cases that could make your kid a bully. That said, below are reasons why parents should keep an eye on their kids to look out for any signs that indicate they are bullies.

Bullies Often Carry Relationship Problems Into Adulthood

Most of the former bullies have relations problems when they grow up. They become abusive when they get into a relationship. They also find it difficult to secure and maintain employment.

Increased Chances of Having Problems With the Law

When you are a bully, you have a high chance of having issues with the law in the future. Former bullies have a higher rate of criminal behavior than those who didn't have this behavior. Studies also reveal that former bullies are likely to carry weapons and may develop ASPD (antisocial personality disorder).

Negative Impacts

People with bully behavior have a higher chance of dropping out of school than non-bully kids. They also have a high risk of experiencing psychological distress, anxiety disorder, and depression.

Why Does a Kid Become a Bully?

There are loads of reasons that can cause children to want to become bullies at school. These include:

• Problems and Misunderstandings at Home. The home environment setting is important when it comes to how your kid behaves. Kids raised by abusive parents are more likely to become bullies. Also, they tend to display aggression and violence when handling any situation that they encounter. When a kid becomes a bully, it is mainly because they lack a sense of control at home. The bottom line is: Low self-esteem can awaken the demon that wants to dominate others.
• Payback for the Previous Bullying. A bully often seeks revenge as a way to let out the anger that they have been carrying for years. Bullies feel justified when they humiliate others. This is because they feel like it's payback for the previous bullying incidences they had experienced.
• Lack of Attention. Children need love and attention from adults. Failure to give your child the right attention and love will lead to the development of aggression. A child who rarely gets attention and approval from home can turn to bully others as a way of seeking attention.
• Lack of Empathy. Bullies lack empathy because they don’t have an idea of what it is and how it works. As a parent, you need to address emotional development in your children. They need to understand what others feel, which will help them build better and healthy relationships when they grow up.
• Sign of Weakness. Recent studies reveal that most kids don't bully their peers because they want to: They are just afraid of losing their superiority as leaders. Aggressive behaviors are a sign of weakness. Experts state that when a kid behaves aggressively, it is a sign of weakness.

Typical Behaviors of Bullies

You should be on the lookout to make certain that your kids aren’t bullies. Some of the signs that indicate your child is a bully include:

• Desire To Be in Control. You kid can decide to become a bully as a way of showing control or dominance over others. In most cases, bullies are aware of the social hierarchy of their schools. They show aggression in an attempt to manipulate and dominate others to maintain their position as a leader.
• Sleeping Disorder. If you discover that your child is having sleep problems, take the necessary action and visit a sleep specialist. They will help you eradicate this problem.
• Obsession with Becoming Popular. A child who is fixated on gaining popularity will get to the extent that they will do anything. Many kids believe that acting hostile to their less-superior peers is a way to gain popularity.
• Traits of Arrogance. Many parents believe that children who become bullies have low-esteem, which is not true. A high percentage of bullies have high-esteem. What prompts them to attack is the contempt for the other person. Aggression is the most common trait in bullies. It is a way of refusing to take their responsibilities and lash out at others.
• Intolerance Towards Other Children. Some bullies tend to display a lack of ability to accept other kids who are different from them in terms of gender, race, or sexual orientation. In an attempt to show disguise over the differences, bullies often engage in name-calling or hurting their peers.

How Do You Help a Kid With Bullying Behavior?

When you notice that one of your children is a bully, you should strategize on how you'll approach this problem. Keeping this in mind, here are a few ways that you can help your kid if you they have this behavior.

- Make Your Home Bully-Free

Parents are the role models of their kids. Children learn from their parents' behaviors. Does your home have an overly strict environment? Does it aspects of aggressive behaviors? If this is the case, there's a high probability that your child might end up becoming a bully. As such, you should ensure you set a good example for your kids in your relationship.

- Teach Kids To Be Respectful and Kind

You should teach your child that it is not right to ridicule differences such as race, religion, appearance, special needs, and economic status. Sensitize on the essence of having empathy towards those who are different.

- Nurture a Positive Family Climate

The sense of working together as a family at home can help in eradicating any behavior of bullying. You need to model a relationship that will teach your children to be respectful.

- Teach Your Child Anger Management Skills

When children do not have anger management skills, they may become bullies. Some kids do this in an attempt to fit in or gain superiority. If you notice any change of behavior in your child, this could be a self-esteem issue. Help your kid see the value of their peers and learn to appreciate what they have to say. If you discover that your child is engaging in bullying activities because of bad company, advise them to develop healthy friendships.

- Use FamiSafe

As a reliable and effective way to prevent your children from having bully behavior, FamiSafe offers an excellent solution to parents who care about their children and don't want them to adopt bullying behavior. The app comes with features that make this an easy task. Let us look at some of the features this app has.

• Web Filtering: Accessing inappropriate content can expose your kid to violence, vulgarity, and nudity. This can play a tremendous role in your children becoming bullies. FamiSafe has a feature that can filter out content from any websites that have unwanted content. What's the best part? The app sends your alerts when your child visits any of the websites that contain violent content or any other age-inappropriate content.
• Browser History: With this feature, you can check everything that your child is doing when they are using their device. FamiSafe allows you to see the apps that they use and how long they spend on these apps.
• Safe Search: This feature allows you to filter out the results when your kid is searching for something on the internet. Your child will not be able to access content that could result in bullying behavior.

Knowing the signs that indicate a kid is bullying others is vital. This will allow you to help them so that they can avoid the negative consequences of being a bully. FamiSafe can help you with this; you can use its features to prevent your children from having bully behavior.