A mum has shared a very honest post on Facebook about an incident her son was involved with recently.
Parenting blogger, Laura Mazza told how her son got in trouble at school for punching one of the other children.
In the post she claimed this behaviour was out of character for her six-year-old son, who is “sweet by nature”.
Because of this, she thought he must have had a good reason for doing what he did, so asked him to tell the truth.
According to Laura, 33, her son was being bullied by another child and he didn’t think the teacher would do anything about it, so he decided to take matters into his own hands to put a stop to it.
She wrote: “My son punched another kid today.
“He told me he had to do yard duty. I kept probing him why and he didn’t want to say, he told me I wouldn’t believe him. He said the teacher didn’t believe him because the kid always pretends to be hurt.
“So I told him, if you tell me the truth, you won’t get into trouble. And he did.
“He told me that another boy was picking on him, and when he told him to stop, he pushed him off the playground, then ran away.”
The mum, from Melbourne, continued to say: “I asked him, ‘okay, so what did you do?’
“He said ‘I chased him and punched him in the face so he knows never to bully me again. I knew the teacher wouldn’t do anything so I had to stop him from bullying me’.
“I didn’t say much, just thanked him for being honest and talked about different ways of handling it without violence.
“But was I proud? Yeah a little bit. I know violence isn’t the answer but I also know that when it comes to bullies you gotta stand up to them. I’m glad he did. I’m sad I wasn’t there to protect him and that he was let down by adults, but I’m glad he stood up for himself, because as an adult that’s still one of the hardest things to do.”
She added: “I want my kids to know that the bad guy doesn’t win.”
Laura then opened up the post to get other people’s thoughts on the situation.
Hundreds of fellow parents praised her son for his actions, saying he did the right thing.
One wrote: “Well done! He handled it well and so did you! Some kids push the boundaries and never see the repercussions of their behaviour.
“Our kids need to know that they’re safe and when they’re not, they have the power to change it.”
Another replied: “Honestly, I would be super proud of my son if it were him! Sadly some teachers don’t always help the right children.”
A third said: “Take your kid for ice cream; he has earned it. If the adults around him failed him and he knew he could face consequences and still chose to stand up for himself… you, my dear are raising a fearless leader.”
However, a teacher begged Laura to encourage her son to always go to his teacher first, as these situations can be “heartbreaking” for staff.
He posted in the comments: “As a teacher, I’m pleading with you to encourage your son to please give the teacher a chance.
“So many times, we only hear about these issues after the kids have taken matters into their own hands and someone has been hurt. That is heartbreaking that it gets that far before we hear about it for the first time.
“I would be asking if he’s told any adult at school about this student and his behaviour before. If he has made several reports and nothing has been done, fair enough but it would be rare for us to ignore report of bullying behaviour.
“Yes, we may not see it, but if it’s reported, it should be taken seriously. Both teachers, and schools can be sued if we don’t attempt to protect the victim. We’ve also done a billion hours of PD about our schools’ bullying policy and the actions we have to take.”
Others thought that talking to the other child’s parents was the best way to handle the situation.