In a couple of minutes I'm off to some fancy afternoon tea at a fashionable country mansion in the neighbourhood.
My co-workers and I really need this after a couple of hectic weeks at work.

Raided Karazhan tonight and cleared everything except Nightbane and Netherspite. We may finish those up tomorrow. I'm tired. Later.

I'm tired of exam time.

Was it nice Jelena?

It was very nice, but also very expensive. I don't think I'll make it a habit going there on Sunday afternoons.

I learnt to be assertive today. I sent back my lunch in a bistro, I decided I wasn't going to do that British thing of refusing to complain, if they expected my money, they were going to damn well bring me exactly what I wanted. It was very empowering.

Good for you Jatsie..... :D

Today I had a really challenging day at work. I had to bring in the parents to four students who have been bullying a younger boy at school. It was a very delicate matter to make them see what really has been going on and disregard from their own children's versions of events.

Parent's often have a hard time understanding that their children not always behave the same at home as they do in school and sometimes, especially the mums take things personally which doesn't help the situation at all. I usually refer to them as "tiger mums".

I do feel that all of the parents understood the situation well by the time we finished our meeting and we made a plan on how to proceed with helping the bullied child and also helping the bullies to stop their behaviour.

Now I'm completely exhausted! :frown:

Yeah but you WITHHELD JUSTICE

My laptop broke on Saturday, my attempts to fix it were to no avail, it's clearly a hardware issue. I bought a new one to temporarily keep me going until I can have it fixed, and all I can say is, I hate Windows Vista. It's so slow, and just generally irritating, bah! At least I can use the internet now, so it's a small price to pay I suppose.

Jelena, as someone who was once bullied as a kid (by the principal's son, among others!), I admire that you're trying to do something to help, yet also slightly skeptical about what talking to the parents will achieve. Maybe things have changed for the better since the early nineties, but in my experience, bringing adults into the situation, if anything, only results in the bullying becoming more covert rather than overt. You're doing the best you can, but sometimes, the best thing you can hope for is for the kid to survive it all and become a stronger and more interesting person. Switching schools sometimes helps, too. :)

Incidentally, I'm currently spending a little bit of time in the city in which I lived when all that happened.

My little girl was bullied at school because she is small and sweet--not having siblings, no one had ever been mean to her before, so she was completely stunned and at a loss for what to do. I don't know how old you were when you were bullied, Squinky, and I don't know the age bracket you're working with, Jelena, but everyone involved in our situation was in kindergarten. The bullies (and there were several) were required to spend their recess time cleaning up different areas in the Lower School area, and Will and I worked with our girl, teaching her how to stand up for herself and when to go to the faculty for help. It worked, but that may be because they are so young. I do know how exhausting the whole process is, Jelena, and I commend you for fighting the good fight, as it were. You are a good human. :)

Yay for homeschooling. Only my wife and I can bully our kids ;)

I can understand your scepticism when it comes to teenage kids. Some parents lose their influence over their children early. But in this case I'd say talking to the parents will make all the difference since these children only are 8-9 y/o. We have routines when it comes to dealing with bullies and they include parents since they, after all, are very important persons in their children's lives. I could go on talking writing about this for a long time, I won't though...;)
Thank you Merricat! The welfare of children is a topic close to my heart. I'm glad it worked out for your daughter. Excellent consequence for the little bullies btw to have them clean the school area. I bet they were grinding their teeth that they had put themselves in a position that made them clean instead of playing with friends.
Homeschooling is very rare in Sweden. How does it work out with friends? A lot of friendships are made at school and not being there might exclude them from groups of friends I'd guess.

Homeschooler right here. Being homeschooled turns one into a complete hermit, whether or not one wants to be. Run away.

Started when I was about six and then some, actually. Fortunately, by the time I reached my teen years, I'd learned to become mostly invisible.

I experienced some bullying when I was a kid. Sadly, in those days, nobody really paid attention to that. To this day, I still find overbearing, insensitive people painfully unbearable to be around. I'm a relatively strong personality myself, but I do find myself fading out of the picture when someone starts getting in my face to take a stronger lead. I'm not terribly competitive.

I respect Jelena's efforts. I congratulate Merricat. I hug Squinky.

I wish humans were just a little bit less like pack animals in social situations.

The people who bullied you likely peaked at seventeen and now lead dreary lives that are spectacularly alike.

It's very inspirational to see that people who were reserved in their teenage years are living happy and fulfilled lives.

The social thing is what many people (including myself when I first met some) first ask to homeschooling parents. Personally, I was pretty withdrawn until I went to University and I went to a normal state-run school, so going to school hardly guarantees you a place in a clique. My girls have friends in church, in the homeschooling groups we go to, in ballet class, gymnastic classes, Suzuki piano classes, Rainbows and various other friends of the family. Kids in school these days are ushered too and from school in cars, have piles of homework (even at 5 years old) and play computer games and watch TV. I'm pretty sure my girls get as much socialising done as any other kids in our village.

But enough defensiveness. Homeschooling means that my girls are finished their schoolwork (and homework equivalent) by lunchtime each day due to a 2:1 teacher/pupil ratio! They go on all kinds of "field trips" in the afternoon: way more than most kids or sometimes they just play with toys or in the garden. Homeschooling means my girls get to learn to read and write Spanish (from my Spanish wife) and be bilingual and don't face teacher or peer pressure to speak English. There's plenty English in their lives with monolingual ignorant old me and almost everyone else around them, so their English skills are not a problem.

There's plenty other little things too (like my 3 year old is already better at mental arithmetic than me...) but I'm fed up typing for now!