Were you bullied as a child? If so, then you know how frightening it can be. As a parent, you want to do everything you can to protect your children from bullies so they never have to experience that horrible feeling of being picked on, laughed at, excluded or physically harmed. If you found out that child is being bullied, would you know what to do? If you’re like most parents you’d probably say one or more of the following things to your child: Pretend it doesn’t bother you; Tell the person how you feel; Tell the person to stop; Do nothing, walk away; Solve the problem yourself; Stop “tattling”; Make plans to get them back; Remind yourself it’s not your fault; Hit or fight the bully. But, according to a 2010 research study, these are among the least effective and least helpful things to support your child if they are being bullied. Source: Youth Voice Research Project: student’s perceptions about strategy effectiveness to reduce peer mistreatment. Survey 11,893 grades 5-12. From the research we know that bullying can have detrimental physical and psychological effects on a child and can result in isolation, depression and even suicide. But, it doesn’t have to be that way. The latest research into bullying shows there is a lot that parents can do to support their children to overcome and to prevent bullying. You can learn how you can help your child learn the skills they need to be bully-proof. What bullying is and what it isn’t. The prevalence of bullying and its many harms. Why your child might not tell you they’re being bullied or that they are a bully. Practical approaches for parents to help their children overcome bullying. Empowering your child with life skills so they become “bully-proof”. Bullying is prevalent in schools, online and in workplaces and it can even happen at home where one sibling bullies another. As a parent you can make a huge difference in your child’s life, by helping your child to develop the right attitude and mindset and learn the life skills to help your child to become bully-proof.

Many parents struggle to get their children off technology and feel unsure about how much time on technology is good for their kids. Many parents have the feeling that their kids spend too much time but don’t know how many hours their kids actually spend on technology and the recommended guidelines for safe use. Quick quiz: Do you know the actual number of hours your child spends watching screens? Do you know the recommended guidelines for safe use of technology by children? If you answered no to one or both of those questions then here’s what you can do Step 1 is to do a screen time audit, say over a week. When you add up the hours your child is on screens, make sure you include: television, videos, phones, tablets and computers – including how much time they spend on a tablet or computer at school. Research studies have shown that parents tend to underestimate the hours their children are on technology. Perhaps you’ll be the same when you work out how much your child actually engages with screens on a daily, weekly, monthly and yearly basis and how much you thought it was. Step 2 is to find out about the recommended guidelines so you can make informed decisions about how much time your child is spending on technology. The challenge is that the recommendations are not clear cut as there are differences between recommendations across different countries and the research is still emerging on technology and kids and the experts are still learning about the harms that can occur as our children engage with more and more technology.