TPP 353: Ginger Whitson on Bullying — What it Looks Like, How to Handle It, and How to Protect Our Kids from Being Targets

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Unknown 0:00
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Signe Whitson 0:26
When a young person tells you that they are being bullied. If you have a parent's heart, you're gonna panic, your the heart's gonna drop, the blood's gonna drain from your face, you're gonna worry, you're gonna just feel so terrible. But no matter what is going on inside your body, you have to convey to the child that their situation is manageable. If kids feel like their adult can't handle what's happening, they lose all of their confidence that okay, I can get through this situation. I think that's one of the number one things. We want to respond, take it seriously, validate the experience, but all in a way that helps convey that we're gonna get through this together.
Debbie Reber 1:12
I'm Debbie Rieber and welcome to Tilt Parenting, a podcast featuring interviews and conversations aimed at inspiring, informing, and supporting parents raising differently wired kids. I get a lot of requests for different topics to cover on this show, and bullying is a theme that has come up more than once. And understandably, since we know that children and teens with learning disabilities, ADHD, autism, are much more likely to experience bullying and social rejection. And we know that being on the receiving end of bullying can be traumatic and have long-lasting negative impacts. I reached out to Ginger Whitson, an author, mental health professional, educator, and expert educator on bullying, crisis intervention, and child and adolescent emotional and behavioral health, and invited her to join me on the show.
Debbie Reber 2:01
Because the concept of bullying evokes such strong feelings and likely a lot of misunderstanding about what even qualifies as bullying, that's where I asked Ginger to start. What exactly is bullying? And does the bullying today's kids and teens experience look and feel different from back when we were in school? I mean, with the addition of technology, it just feels like a completely different ballgame. I also asked Ginger to guide us on how we should best respond if our child tells us they're being bullied, if there are ways we can bullyproof our kids, and how we can preemptively prepare them so they feel they have a plan for dealing with negative behavior from other kids. In addition to her important work with children and her books, which include Friendship and Other Weapons, Group Activities to Help Young Girls ages five to eleven to cope with bullying, and the eight keys to end bullying activity program workbook, Ginger, whose work can be found under the name Signa Whitzen, is also the COO of the Life Space Crisis Intervention Institute, an international project.
Debbie Reber 3:05
Training program that helps adults turn problem situations into learning opportunities for young people who exhibit challenging behaviors. Oh, and I had hoped to get into another area of Ginger's work, anger management for kids, during this chat, but I realized halfway into the interview that we were not going to be able to give it the time it deserves. So Ginger agreed to come back again soon to talk about that topic and her book, How to Be Angry: Strategies to Help Kids Express Anger Constructively, which includes a forew by friend of the pod, Dr. Lori DeSottles. But for today, let's talk all things bullying. Here is my conversation with Ginger Whitson. Hey Ginger, welcome to the podcast. Thanks. Thanks so much for having me here.
Debbie Reber 3:55
Yes, I'm really looking forward to this conversation. I have to just say, this season in particular, I am bringing so many new topics to the show and it's very exciting to me. And I can't believe we haven't even had an episode in seven and a half years that's focused specifically on bullying. So this is long overdue.

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