[Suzi]

I suppose what most of All kids went through in school could now-adays be called bullying. I never thought of it that way - there were cliques, and mean girls but I honestly believe that those trying times made me what I am today. Sure some of the stuff was hurtful. You'd get ridiculed if you didn't have the right clothes, or if your period made your pimples bad or whatever.
I know there will be people that will say that all that stuff is bullying and is bad. But I disagree. If everyone had a perfect life with no bumps and bruises, we'd all turn out like clones of each other. When someone is mean, you have to learn how to deal with it. If you get pushed down, you get up again and learn another tactic/lesson and how to deal with it. Now I DON'T advocate beating up anybody......some grown-up needs to step in, but short of that, some of this has to be sorted out by the kid. And parents need to monitor and be part of their kids life. I always knew what was going on in my kids lives.......just by the look on their faces.
Its just my opinion that the term bullying is currently being used too liberally. Having a bunch of your friends at the lunch table and not letting someone else (outside of your group) sit down, in my opinion, is not bullying. Thats just me though.