Proud Mom on the topic of Bullying

Facebook can bring on evil or it could end all evil. It is up to the users (us) on how we use it. My son made me a proud mama yesterday.

The story below is what went down.

Characters are Girl, Friend and Joseph. Girl is the one that posted the picture and Friend is her friend, I guess. Joseph is my son.

*Girl from school posts a picture of her and another boy.*
*Friend comments: Ewww he is nasty.
*Girl: I know, lol it's funny though.
*Joseph: No he's not, he just likes to read. He's not that bad once you start to talk to him.
*Friend: I've known him since kindergarten and yeah he picks his nose and eats it in front of me!
*Joseph: Oh well, all I can say is he's good at baseball, he hits like 3 homeruns and like 50 strikeouts.
*Girl: You guys are mean.
*Joseph: What did I do, I'm his friend, I'm trying to take up for him.
*Friend: How? He hates me and I hate him
*Girl: Well, I'm sticking up for him too cause he gets treated badly that's why he is so mean to other people.
*Joseph: I know
*Friend: ha ha ha
*Girl: It's not funny maybe if you are in his position you wouldn't be laughing.
*Joseph: Yeah how would you feel?
*Friend: ha ha ha meaning this convo got boring
*Girl: stop
*Friend: Stop what? I wasn't laughing, I said ha ha which is I'm bored pretty much.
*Girl: well just leave it at that
*Friend: Its not like he can see what I'm saying
*Girl: chill

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Joseph is a pretty popular guy, athletic, well liked, makes good grades etc. He is the Defender.  He chimed in and took up for this boy, whom doesn't have facebook therefore can't take up for himself. By Joseph standing up and taking up for him, he changed the mind of the girl that posted the picture and she started taking up for him.

I was proud. I was secretly watching this conversation going on and once it was over, I walked upstairs and told Joseph I was proud of him. He then started to tell me that everyone makes fun of him and he feels sorry for him. Joseph said that even his friends make fun of him. Joseph likes him and doesn't understand why he is being made fun of.

My mouthy, arrogant son who never shows any kind of emotion was talking to me about feeling sorry for someone. All of my lectures that I thought were going through one ear and out of the other had actually sunk in. This was my opportunity to teach him how to handle the situation.

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I don't know the proper way to handle this type of situation, I may have told him something wrong, but I told him what I would do. I told him that while his friends or anyone was making fun of someone, that he needed to stand up to them and tell them to stop. It's not cool.

Joseph can make a difference. He can be friends with him because I'm sure the boy could use some friends. He can use his "popularity" for good use. If his peers see him taking up for someone and doing good, then maybe it will catch on.

Joseph listened. He didn't say much, but I could tell he felt good about himself for taking up for this boy. I walk downstairs and started talking to RJ about it. Hailey comes in and wants me to lie down with her. I take my phone with me so I can browse facebook some more. About five minutes later, I see a very long status update from Joseph. All the words ran together, there were no periods and a lot of mispelled words. I could tell he was pouring his heart out and not thinking of grammer. He was determined to make a difference.

This was his post. I'm going to quote it exactly, so it is a little hard to read.

"lms(like my status) if you dont like people that make fun of other people and i know that about every single guy thats my friend does it but Austin n ive seen him get made fun of n ive seen jacob n others but when they have the same damn rights we do n when people say i do it to other people when im takin up for the person when someone made fun of him n i said somethin to the god made us n he made us equal n some people take for granite that mayb there parents did get a better job mayb they do get more money but y make fun of that person help him because he or she r the way they r cus now all i see people do is put people down n make them feel smaller than he or she when they need help ive seen elijah made fun of people calling him short ive seen jamie beeing called big ginger the giant if people didnt make fun of people mayb life would go on better so lms if you think it should stop"

 Hard to read? Yes. Meaningful? Yes. Written from the heart? Yes. Am I proud? Definitly!

He posted that at 10pm last night. He had received 8 comments and 20 likes by his friends before he went to bed.

My heart was racing, my throat had a lump in it and my eyes were getting teary eyed.

Middle school kids can be so mean sometimes.

I hope he and his friends can make a difference in another childs life that is being bullied. I hope they can make it stop. I'm so happy that Joseph took his leadership personality, boldness and words and spoke what he believed.

I couldn't be more proud of him.

Don't ever be afraid to stand up for what you believe.  Don't be a follower, supporter or onlooker.  Stand up and defend!  You just might make a difference in someone's life in a positive way.