My son is dealing with a bully on his volleyball team. A very unexpected place. My daughter has been involved with this Christian, Homeschooling volleyball team for a year. We dealt with NOTHING with her, no bullying at all. My son has been dealing with it all semester. I convinced him to try volleyball, and he does love it, but he doesn't like being bullied. The one kid who was doing it earlier in the semester, is now really nice to him. But this one kid - who I just totally don't understand WHY - I know his family, his Mom and Dad are WONDERFUL, his siblings are really sweet. I thought HE was sweet, too. But he's tripping my son, pushing him, throwing the volleyball at him - HARD to his face - etc. Never gets caught by the coaches. I will see the mom at coop this week and plan on saying something to her - nicely - just to let her know it's happening. My son is with this boy in a couple classes at coop and NEVER acts this way there (according to my son). I THINK he thinks it won't get back to his parents, and that's why he's acting this way at volleyball. Either that or my son is being too sensitive and taking it the wrong way (this boy has 2 brothers, my son has none, this does tend to lead him to not understand typical "boy" behavior in some situations). Anyway, I could really use some prayer on this. For my son. For me. For the Mom. For the Boy. Etc. THANK YOU!!!!
If you think your son's "being too sensitive", could you be there for volleyball and see for yourself ("without looking") whether the boy is doing things deliberately to be mean or "just being a boy"? And if you are there and obviously watching, maybe the boy won't do it. Not that you're there hovering, but just enjoying watching practice...
My first two thoughts after reading your post were: 1. Linda's Idea is good, try to see for yourself if your son is overreacting. Boys are soooooo rough! LOL 2. If he isn't, approach the mom with how sweet everyone in her family is and ask if her son is going through something? With your description of the family and the boy being not a bully at coop, it makes me wonder if he's acting out because he's dealing with something and acting out??? I will pray for all involved
I was going to maybe talk with the mom at coop this week. But my husband and son and I talked. My son has not said anything to the boy yet, so my husband thinks we need to let our son TRY to talk with him and let him know how he's feeling. We have one more practice, and one tournament before we end for winter. It will start up again in January. I think I will try to watch this practice and see. It's not "easy" to watch practice. But I might try. I'll also be able to watch at the tournament and see how he behaves with my son AND how he behaves with the other boys. I love my son. But being sandwiched between two girls, he does tend to be less "boy" when he's around boys who have brothers. I don't know if that makes sense or not. He is "all boy"….but he's not a rough=houser. LOL
For those that prayed, thank you. My son was prepared to stand up for himself tonight if need be. The opportunity/need never arose. The boy basically "ignored" him. Which is totally fine with me. Tonight was the last practice until after the new year. Monday is the tournament and they are not on the same team (the Jrs are split into two separate teams). They will have very little opportunity for contact. My oldest is on the team with his older brother, which I'm curious if has something to do with his change in behavior. We'll see. My son feels fairly confident that he could stand up for himself if it starts up again after the new year. In the meantime, we are praying for the boy together and I think that is softening my son's heart for him.
