Sam age 4, bullied by Garrett age 6

Sam age 4, bullied by Garrett age 6

Sam is four years old. He stays at home with his mother in the afternoons since pre-school only last half a day. He seems to like going to pre-school and is getting along well with the other students there.

Garrett is six years old. He has just started Kindergarten. This is the first year that he has been away from his mother and brother all day long. He has stated that he doesn’t want to go to school in the morning and is anxious throughout the day to get home.

Sam and Garrett’s mother has observed them playing on this particular day while she is cooking dinner. Sam is watching TV and Garrett wants to play a video game on the TV.

Garrett turns the channel off of what Sam was watching and Sam becomes very upset. He begins yelling at Garrett. Having no success, he begins to cry and call for his mother. Garrett puts his hand over Sam’s mouth and tells him to shut up. Then he pushes Sam onto the floor. Sam continues to cry for his mother.

When his mother enters the room, Garrett says that Sam fell down. He tells a story about how that Sam tripped over a toy. Garrett glares at Sam and Sam says that it was a ball that he tripped over. Garrett smiles.

Since their mother has seen the whole scenario, she decided to take a closer look to see what is going on with the boys. She watches and sees two other incidences of Garrett bullying Sam.

The boy’s mother decides that she is clearly headed for more trouble. She visits Garrett’s school and talks with Garrett’s teacher about his behavior at school. The teacher tells her that Garrett seems to get along with the other students, but often complains that he wants to go home. He sometime even makes up stories about why he should go home. Sometimes that he isn’t feeling well and other times something outrageous.

After speaking with the teacher and discussing some ways to address the issue, Sam and Garrett’s mother has come to the conclusion that Garrett maybe jealous that Sam is spending more time with his mother. She talks to Garrett about it and he tells her that he would rather stay home with her than to go to school.

Garrett and his mother come to an agreement. If Garrett will try very hard to be nice to his brother, then his mother will pick him up from school on Fridays and they will be able to spend some alone time together. She discusses with Garrett about the time that he had with her before Sam was even born and about better ways to handle situations where Sam and Garrett don’t agree.

They set some new rules and posted them in the kitchen where Garrett and Sam can see them. The boys even drew pictures to go along with the words since neither of the boys was old enough to read. This allowed both boys time to talk with their mom about bullying and getting along with each other while they made the rules and created the sign.

Both boys also know the consequences of bullying. They know that they will have a certain time out if the behavior gets out of control. It is up to Sam and Garrett’s mother to enforce this.