Bullying is something that can leave a lasting psychological impression on a young child. In school, it’s something that starts out so innocently, most children can’t even identify it as bullying. Most parents also witness bullying everyday too. Whether they see their child being a bully, getting bullied, or simply sit back and watch other children bully, they see it, yet they do nothing. When confronted about the issue, most parents will comment, “oh kids will be kids” or “they are just having a little fun.” But what happens when that “fun” isn’t fun for the child being picked on anymore? When does a parent say enough is enough and finally step in?

When I went through elementary school, I was a victim of bullying. It wasn’t the classic “pushing, shoving, hair-pulling, and teasing” bullying that you see in movies and would expect. It was more psychological. I was constantly called embarrassing nicknames by these kids who were supposedly my “friends.” They made fun of the way I looked and dressed and were constantly putting me down. One day, I came to school and I wasn’t allowed to play with them anymore. It was as if I had some disease that they were afraid of catching. I hadn’t done anything wrong, but they made me feel like I had. When I asked if I could join them at recess, I was told, “no.” As time went on, some days I was allowed to play with them and other days, I wasn’t. If I was lucky, I was allowed to play for a few days in a row, but then they would revert back to ignoring me. It all happened slowly, though. So slowly, I didn’t even realize it was happening, until I started waking up with “stomach-aches” every morning and dreaded going to school. Only now do I look back and realize that what was happening to me was bullying.

Now, I am wrapping up my freshman year of college, and I am no longer bullied. All of the children who I thought were my “friends” I have since left behind. But, I have a new problem. I have an eight-year-old sister who is in the third grade. She is currently going through ALL of the same problems I went through. She doesn’t know it yet, but she is being bullied too. Those “friends” are not her friends. They are toxic relationships that need to be terminated as soon as possible before there is lasting damage.

Bullying doesn’t always start or stop when you are young, though. It can happen at any time. Numerous cases of bullying happen all throughout middle school, high school, and even in the workplace as adults. When one person puts another person down for whatever reason, that is bullying. It doesn’t matter what age. If you make fun of someone for the way they look, act, dress, or talk, you are being a bully, and it is time to stop.

So the answer to the question, “when is enough, enough?” is this: If you see something, say something. Whether you are a parent, sibling, student, passerby, uncle, aunt, grandparent, teacher, whomever, you have the power to stop the bullying of an innocent child before something bad happens. I was lucky. My bullying stopped soon after elementary school. My sister will also be lucky because she has my parents and me, and we will do everything in our power to stop the children who think it is okay to bully. Every seven minutes a child is bullied, and only 4% of adults intervene. We all have the power to do something and speak up for someone who doesn’t feel like they have the power to speak up for themselves.