While growing up, I felt bullied only a few times in my life.  I ignored it when I could, and the one time when I couldn’t, I punched the person in the face and we both got expelled for a day.  But now I’m a mother, and the bully isn’t coming after me. They’ve set their sights on my child.  It’s one thing to attack me.  I know I can take it.  I place no importance on the outside words and actions of others beyond my small circle of family and friends.  My child, however, is still young, he doesn’t have the years of experience or the built up mental barriers.  I want to act, charge into the school like a momma bear defending her cub, but my son begs me to leave it alone. “Don’t make it worse,” he says. Maybe he’s right.  I overcame the few bullies I experienced.  Is this how I help him grow? After all, everyone else keeps calling it, “just plain old teasing between boys.” Are they right? Is he more of a jester than a bully?  The only problem, I’ve been a witness to some of this “teasing”. It looked more like thinly veiled hazing to me.