What is bullying?
Bullying can be physical, emotional, verbal or a combination of these. Examples of bullying are:

• Punching, kicking or slapping
• Name calling
• Playing dirty tricks
• Leaving a child out of games, etc.
• Spreading rumors

Who are the victims?
No all children will be bullied. Characteristics of children prone to be picked on:

• Low self-esteem
• Insecure
• Lack of social skills
• Don't pick up on social cues
• Cry or become emotionally distraught easily
• Unable to defend or stand up for themselves

If your child is being bullied.
As a parent, your natural reaction is to want to protect your child or confront the bully. Or you maybe embarrassment and want your child to toughen up and fight back. You may feel helpless about the situation. None of the responses are going to be helpful. How to help:

• Get as much information about what happened
• Avoid blaming
• Look at your child's behavior and work with them about strategies in dealing with bullying such as walking away.

What to do if Your Bullied?
Pick a way of coping:

• Help -- seek help from friends and/or an adult
• Assert Yourself -- look at the bully in the eye and tell them to stop
• Humor -- respond with a remark to make the bully laugh
• Avoid -- walk away, stay with other not alone.
• Fogging -- use statements like "that's interesting"
• Attitude -- respond in a way that lets them know you are comfortable with yourself regardless of what they say
• Self-talk -- put on a recording in your own mind saying nice things about yourself -- blocking out the bully
• Own It -- own the put-down to throw the bully off.

Don't react emotionally -- don't show strong emotions, it will feed the bully even more.

How you can help stop bullying.
Girls can have as big effect as adults in stopping bullying. How?

• By speaking out and getting adult help... the goal is not to get anyone in trouble, but the help if someone is in danger physically or emotionally
• Use extra effort to include everyone
• Strength is found in numbers

Strategies for helping others using CARE (from Bullyproofing Your School):

• C -- Creative problem solving -- brainstorm a win-win situation
• A -- Adult Help
• R -- Relate and Join
• E -- Empathy -- let the bully know you understand how the victim feels.

Information for this article was gathered from Delaware Attorney General Kid's Page and Safe Child Program.