Why People Bully and Tease

    Depending on how old you are, you may or may not have been a victim of teasing. Teasing is mean words, light insults, or rude actions. Teasing isn't the same as bullying; there's a big difference that will be explained later in this post. If you think you have been a victim of bullying, check out this post to follow the appropriate actions to get help. 

   

    Skip these next 2 paragraphs if you want to get right to the main part of the post! 

    Teasing can really hurt someone's feelings. Sometimes, teasing isn't meant to hurt someone. It's typically made to be a playful insult that doesn't really mean much. Normally, a friend or someone you know will do it. An example of teasing might be someone saying, "You eat like a pig!" Or someone could stick their tongue out at you and call you gross, and then giggle. But there are many things that define as teasing. If teasing is really bothering you, it's a good idea to get some help to stop it. Once kids get older, people tend to think that telling on someone is being a "tattletale." But it's never wrong to get help for something you'd like to stop.

    Bullying is a much different problem. Bullies actually try to hurt someone else's feelings on purpose. That's never right. Bullying is sometimes defined as teasing over a long period of time, or something that doesn't happen just once. People who haven't been bullied might think of it as someone tackling you or hurting you physically multiple times. Words can hurt, too, and words are normally used to hurt people in a bully's world. You might think that bullies are just people born rotten and they are really evil. But sometimes it's not that simple. 

    There are many reasons a bully might bully. One common one is a bully has been bullied in the past. You don't know everyone's story. I'm going to give you two characters here: Jackson and Devan. Jackson is a bully and Devan is the victim. 

    So, let's pretend that when Jackson was younger, he was bullied by a kid one grade higher than him. The bullying really hurt Jackson's feelings; but Jackson didn't tell anyone and wanted to keep it a secret. He started learning from the bullies' actions and wanted to use those actions against the bully to make them stop. One day, Jackson moved to a new school. He realized that since he was new, no one really respected him. He started yelling at kids and saying rude things to random people during lunch. A main person Jackson bullied was another boy in his class named Devan. He started called Devan "smarty-pants" and "nerdy". That's an example of someone bullying because they were bullied in the past.

    The next reason is because of bad influences. Let's say Jackson had 3 older cousins. Jackson's older cousin's were impolite and teased each other often. They purposely made Jackson feel left out and picked on him because his clothes were too loose. Some people learn bad things through family members or even other friends. Jackson also watched a TV show about a girl that made fun of a lot of kids at her summer camp. Some influences aren't just people!

    One more reason is because of feeling left out and wanting attention. Jackson was used to everyone knowing who he was at his old school, but now no one even cares about him. Some bullies take out their anger on other kids. They think it might help them get attention. Since no one had respected Jackson or even talked to him, he decided to make them talk to him. Have him get some attention. 

    A last reason is that sometimes, something is going on the bullies life. Maybe the bully is having some problems at home with their family. Maybe they are failing school and are struggling to complete their homework. Maybe they are stressed and have anxiety. Bullies tend to vent their emotions out on other people. 

    We strongly advise you to tell someone if you are getting bullied! 

    Thank you for reading this post! Please comment and ask any questions you may have! Be kind, stay kind! Bye!