Dad Confronts His Son’s Bully By Spending an Afternoon With Him
Seeing your child come home distraught about being bullied can send your blood pressure through the roof. Your feelings may range from anger, to wanting to cry, to teaching your child how to fight back.
At the same time, you may wonder what would drive a child to hurt another child. Maybe some part of you remembers the all too true saying, “Hurt people hurt people.” So, your compassion sets in, wanting to understand why the bully is picking on your kid.
It was mixture of feelings for Aubrey Fontenot, a father who had to do something to address his son being bullied. Fontenot – like many parents who’ve dealt with bullying – had multiple conversations with his 8-year-old’s school about ongoing incidents.
An 11-year-old boy was behind the constant trouble, and two recent issues had Fontenot fuming. The latest involved his son’s phone being stolen by the older boy. When he talked to the school principal and the authorities, they indirectly implied that the child was experiencing some problems in his home life.
Fontenot learned that the kid – named Tamarion – doing the bullying was actually homeless. It was in that moment that realized the root of the problem, and said, “Oh okay I didn’t realize that, wow that makes a lot of sense.”
He wound up speaking with the boy’s mother, confirming that the family was experiencing a hardship. With the mother’s permission, Fontenot spoke with Tamarion to ask him about his behavior. The young man admitted that he was jealous of Fontenot’s son having things like clean clothes, and that he was tired of being made fun of for being “dirty” and not having things.
Instead of going off on the kid, this dad turned things around by showing kindness. During Tamarion’s suspension for the stealing his son’s phone, Fontenot spent the day with him and took him shopping. In a video posted to social media, he also shared that he took the opportunity to talk to him about self-confidence, morals, and principles.
Perhaps the most moving interaction came when he arranged for the two boys to have a sit-down to hash things out. They squashed their ill feelings and Fontenot charged them with treating each other like brothers, looking out for one another and keeping things cool (and kind).
Now, the boys have become friends and Fontenot continues to spend time with both of them. In another gesture of goodwill towards Tamarion and his family, he also set up a GoFundMe page to help them get back on their feet. To date, the campaign has raised over $30,000, exceeding its $7,000 goal.
We are not sure how many parents would have done what this father did after a string of bullying incidents. It just goes to show you that sometimes compassion is a better path than anger. Now these kids have learned a valuable lesson and gained a friend for life!
Would you have done the same in Fontenot’s shoes? Have you or your child been in a similar bullying situation? What do you think of this story?
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