Giblets: Toughening kids up, abuse, and bullying causes and responses

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Giblets: Toughening kids up, abuse, and bullying causes and responses

I had a friend write this blog entry a short while ago, and I thought that it was good enough that I wanted to comment on it a bit and maybe promote it on my own blog. The topic of his blog entry is about bullying and how some people have the mistaken impression that bullying toughens kids up for their adult lives.

Of course, this idea is absurd and appeals to some of the basest urges of the human race. Evolutionary biologists note that we are one chromosome and some odd strains of DNA away from being chimpanzees. When I read opinions like this, I think that relationship shows through a lot more than people would like to realize.  So, you whole excuse for bullying is that the kid's life will suck later on and you want to help him or her by making that life suck now too?

I mean, really?

Seriously?

If someone's life is going to suck at all, I would think that people should do everything in their power to help prevent that life from sucking in any way possible. For example, if I saw a child starving in Africa, I would want to give that child food instead of starving him or her more just to help "toughen" the child up for the rest of life. Sure, maybe that child has a high probability of further suffering later on in life. But, I don't know how suffering now is going to help that.

My friend makes a lot of other points in his post, and you should check it out if you're interested. Also, if you're looking for a good read, check out any of the blogs on my sidebar. I am pretty careful about which ones I put there, and I have rejected several requests from people to add their blogs (mostly containing spam) to my blog list.

Also, if you have any comments or experiences on bullying, please leave you comment and favorite link below.

Related articles

• Bullying in Preschool: What Parents Need to Know (education.com)
• Boys That Bully More Likely to Beat Partners Later (euzicasa.wordpress.com)
• What Should I Do If I'm Bullied? (education.com)
• Police: Man Brutally Beat 2-Year-Old Girl To "Toughen Her Up" (dreamindemon.com)
• Once a Bully, Always a Bully? (abcnews.go.com)
• Deleting the Blog Bully (psychologytoday.com)
• I want my bullied son to fight back (mirror.co.uk)