NO MORE BULLIES!

Dearest Clarity,

My daughter has just started Senior Kindergarten! I can't believe how fast it has all gone by. Although the kids in her class are only five, bullying has already begun. Through my own experiences as a child, and through the experiences of other parents and kids I know, its obviously a very serious problem. Bullying can really hurt people both inside and out. In the present and in the future. It can take a child's confidence away, distract them from learning and cause them to be afraid to go to school and be themselves.

I have personally been talking to my daughter about this for a while now, because it's something that I find very important. I believe it is up to us as parents and caregivers to do our best to make our children aware of what bullying is, and how to deal with it. If we start at a young age, to teach our children the tools they need to be confident in who they are, and give them the ability to stick up for themselves and others, then we have already made a difference.

In my experience bullies are usually children that come from a back round where they were taught to deal with feelings or conflicts in negative ways, or not at all. Or they are looking for attention for some reason and don't know any other way to express it.  

Unfortunately getting to the root of why the bully is doing what they are doing is not always easy. This is why I believe the best way to try and stop this serious issue, is again to strengthen our children's confidence. Let them know how loved they are, how proud we are of them, and how much they are capable of.

At my daughter's young age of five, I have told her to tell the bully that she does not want to be treated that way, and to move on and go play with someone else. Now I know as kids get older it gets harder and more intense, so hear is a great website for anyone who might need it.

www.bullying.org

Let's love our children.

Let's help our children.

Let's respect our children

Let's be positive role models for our children

LET'S MAKE A CHANGE!

THE UNKNOWN

Dearest Clarity,

After everything I went through with my daughters father before he decided to disappear, I find myself still dealing with the anxiety and fear of our arguments, misunderstandings, disappointment's and disagreements. When I say fear I'm not talking about being scared of him hurting me physically, I'm just talking about the torment of going through him not showing up, or him arguing with my every move and decision. Towards the end when it got really bad and intense between us, I felt the worst feelings I have ever felt. Every once and a while that anxiety and fear comes back. Not knowing if he will ever call again or show up again. Not knowing if he will ever want to come back and be a father to his beautiful daughter. The unknowings of it all can be so overwhelming. Will we see him walking down the street? Will we never see him again? Sometimes when my phone or doorbell rings my heart jumps. Then I start to think, what if he does come back around, what will I do? How will I handle it? How will it affect my daughter? and what if she blames me. When I start feeling this way, which is often, I just try to breathe through it and tell myself everything will be ok. I talk to friends, family or write in my journal. At the end of the day though all of these fears and anxiety of the unknown is always there, I just pray that I can get to a place where I don't feel this way anymore, or at least it can't get in the way of me living a happy, peaceful life. I guess I just need to somehow accept that I can't do anything about it. I can just be the best woman and mother I can be, and be positive and hope for the best for everyone involved.

PROUD TO BE CANADIAN!

I know this has nothing to do with my blog but I think it's really awesome, so I wanted to share. They did such a good job and we pretty much killed the new version of We Are The World, so Enjoy and be proud to be Canadian!