"Sticks & stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me." LIE.LIE.LIE.LIE.
That's the biggest crock of crapola grown-ups have been teaching children for years. Words
do hurt & can destroy some. Oh, yes indeed. It can wreck self-esteem, rip confidence to shreds, it can alter the way the a person sees the world; it can make them jaded & steal their joy.
I think that ole' saying might have been put in place by parents as a defense mechanism for kids who were being bullied growing up - it's the only armor of defense parents had because as a parent, you can't go sucker punk the little brat who's torturing your little Johnny-boy.
For me, when I was little - people said a lot of cruel words to me & behind my back about me. It did sting a bit & after a while, it wore on me & it became exhausting at times to keep my head held high - but I was strong enough to not let it get to me. I was able to push through, to keep my happiness & tell those mean little f*ckers to get a life...but not everyone is like me. To some, words are like daggers to the heart.
Words destroy people. I think they have the tendency to reek havoc on some, while others let them gently roll off of their feathers.
I guess you could say I'm a mix of both. I'm like a strong steel wall and a delicate little flower all wrapped into one. So, when someone says something mean & hateful that slips off of their tongue with no hesitation, yet they probably have no direct intention of hurting me, it stings & then it pisses me off - only for about 30 minutes or so and then I bounce right back and am completely fine & tell them to go play in traffic. Jk
Thankfully, I have had only positive thoughts my entire life & have purposely thrown up a "DO NOT ENTER" sign to any negativity heading my way. I can't stand it & won't allow it in my life! And that is by
choice. I have never been in a deep depression. I mean, of course, I have had a couple days where I didn't want to get out of bed (that may or may not have been because I wanted to watch Disney movies all day...but shhh...don't tell anyone) but THANK GOD it has never been worse than that - I also think that's due to my personality & outlook on life also. Anyways, getting to my point - it lead me to thinking about all of the people who suffer from deep depression, and even worse - children who are in a deep depression. Kids are fragile human beings that are like sponges and soak up every single little thing they hear. So, if there is some little snot-nosed kid trying to ruin their recess break or school-life - we should take action! Not only put the bad kid in time out; we should check on the little ole guy who was being bullied.
I don't have kids - (yet) so I don't know how bullying is handled now-a-days, but I know when I was a youngster - no one ever asked if I was okay. They would scold the person at fault and then that was that. I think we should have positive reinforcement - tell our children that we love them & everything will be just hunky dory fine & be a support system for them.
NOOOOOOOOT trying to put a damper on your day or anything, but reading these statistics nearly ruined mine - so I thought I would share with you.....
PLEASE WATCH THE LINK BELOW:
http://www.ksat.com/news/Students-deal-with-pressures-of-going-back-to-school/-/478452/21708190/-/tskm2wz/-/index.html
With that being said, did you know that:
- If you didn't watch the video that I just politely asked you to watch - go watch it now! lol
But seriously, with that being said, did you know that:
- Suicide is the SECOND leading cause of death for ages 10-24. (2010 CDC WISQARS)
- Suicide is the SECOND leading cause of death for college-age youth and ages 12-18. (2010 CDC WISQARS)
- In ages 10-14, we have seen an alarming 128% increase in suicides since 1980, making it the third leading cause of death for that age group.
DID I JUST READ THAT CORRECTLY? Holy moly...what 10-12 year old thinks about that kind of stuff? It's absolutely disturbing and sad. I think people tend to throw their words around so easily, not knowing how fragile people are on the inside. People are made to be loved, to be cherished - not torn down and shredded to pieces & then stomped on.
In the world we live in today, children's home lives are not the best we've ever seen. It's nowhere near Mary Poppins status now-a-days & to add to that - children are having miserable lives at school due to bullying & a million other reasons, I'm sure.
How tormented does someone have to be to think that taking their own life would be better than being in the situation they are in now?
We need to make a change.
sh
l)