I am a single mum to a 10yr old boy. Long story short, a yr ago we moved to the other side of the city following leaving a DV rship. We started fresh and both settled in well, he is doing beyond great at school and I have a great job and not struggling financially for once and everything seems to be working out for us. We are both very happy.
I have always been a bigger girl (size 16 since 15) and after depression and being diagnosed with pcos last yr, I have put on about 25kgs. I am starting to take my health seriously and involve my son, we go for walks/rides together and eat well and he knows the importance of an active life.
Tonight he was at scouts, and asked me to leave when the parents were asked to participate in a game. I didn't think much of it, just a ten yr old going through the 'mums embarrassing' phase. When I picked him up I asked him why he wanted me to go as other parents stayed, and after a while it came out that he has no friends at school and he doesn't want that to happen at scouts. He told me that kids at school had been picking on my weight and he stood up to them (bless him-he has the best heart) and now no one really likes him or plays with him because his "mum is so fat". He was crying when he told me this.
I am absolutely heartbroken for him....I was bullied for it when I was younger but now it seems like a vicious circle and he is being left out/picked on for MY faults.
I just don't know how to handle this, I don't know what to say to him and have no real 'friends' or 'mums' to turn to. Please help ? I'm devastated.
1 Replies
Kids who are bullies usually choose an excuse or topic to bully about. It rarely is logical. I would treat this like any other incident of bullying and report it to the class teacher.
Bullying is unacceptable full stop, end of story. The school will have a 'chat' about bullying and how it's unacceptable etc and go to some effort to change the culture. If the don't do that, go to the principle and if they don't do anything then, change schools.
This has nothing to do with your weight and everything to do with the kids in your sons school. Bullies pick something a topic that they think will hurt, they work on the belief that others will join in order to not be the target themselves. If it wasn't your son copping it, it would be another child and a different topic. Because it's not you or your sons problem, it's the bullies problem.
Please don't ignore this. I've been bullied, my topic was my good posture (I was training as a dancer) so go figure!!!