Thank you, you're so right too. I do keep trying with the "being the bigger person" thing but he takes his dad's route which is just to try to shrug and bury his head in the sand. They spent most of yesterday re-adding him to a message group but he left every time they did, but I'm not sure he's actually gone as far as blocking. I will check.If it’s happening out of school time I’m not sure that the school would concern themselves with it unless it crosses over into the school.
I think you need to consider telling him to delete his Instagram account for the time being. Or putting it to private. Surely he could block these people on Instagram? It’s the easiest solution. Don’t engage. That’s the bottom line. I know it’s easy to say and when you are a kid you want to keep in touch with pals particularly during lockdown. But they aren’t pals. They are showing that. At some point one of them is going to have to be the bigger person and walk away from it.
I’m a lot older than your son obviously but I ended up in a situation on twitter where I was being badly harassed by a group of adults who don’t know me.
I didn’t want to leave twitter but I had to. It was making me ill and if I hadn’t left it would still be going on now.
It’s the sensible solution to try and remove him from the source of the problem even if that’s on a temporary basis until this blows over and if that means deleting insta off his phone for a bit maybe that’s what needs to happen at least in the short term.
Thank you. I am prone to getting emotional and shaky so I don't know I'd do too well in the discussion situation. Maybe I'm more like Jack than I thought, happy to say my piece online but not in person!Sure I can see how it can lead to confrontation with the other parents if done with emotions blazing, and I can see how school is the best option for advocacy if it were an in-school problem. I don’t know how old your son is, but if like mine, he’s not currently there and they are winding down for the term, and it’s actually not happening AT school - what can they do right now? Offer support, yes ...
In my own personal experience, I was friends with the bully’s parent - I politely and calmly and also with as much good humour as I could - had a chat with them and discussed it. It is awful to have that conversation, and it can lead to escalation, I do realise this. But I knew that I would like to have known if it were my son who was doing the bullying.
it’s such a sensitive matter, and difficult if it’s all on Instagram. It’s a good start for him to stay off it for a while, if that’s reasonable. Wish you lots of sympathy X