9 Yr. Old 4Th Grader Feels like a Baby

My husband and I have this talk a lot. We have a 12 month old and we are also a Christian family. We obviously have a while before he will be going through it but I was severely bullied in school and I want to do all that I can to avoid that for my kids. With that being said, I watched the scary movies, I went and did the same stuff the other kids did. Therefore, I will not budge when it comes to watching certain things, playing certain games... etc. It is hard to hear that your own children are at the bottom so to speak when it comes to the cool factor, and it is hard for little ones to realize that no matter what you have, wear, watch, nothing goes with you in the end. The other kids are absolutely bragin about what they can get away with and what their parents let them do. Encourage the games you have on Wii and the game cube. Play with him and show him that you can have fun too. If you can sort of convince him that what he already has is good enough then it wont matter what the other kids are doing. Search around your church family for same age kids so that he can be surrounded by people with the same morals. The more friends he gets that are like him the less he will worry about the ones that are NOT like him.

Good luck. Everything is way easier said than done. And like I said I have not had to go through it... but I am definitely preparin myself!

I'm with you! Stick to your position. He is set apart, and is blessed to have someone protecting his imagination. Keep doing what you can, though at times it feels like paddling upstream. Godspeed to you!

My kids are happy being involved in our church, with their church friends. They don't feel the pressure from school because they hang out with their church friends at school. If you are not already, get them in all the activities you can at your church. It has really helped us a lot, especially with our middle child. Choir, plays, youth, volunteering, whatever. There is plenty to do there. We are there 3x a week, along with all the field trips that go along with being involved. Lots of fun for them, and, the best friends they can have who believe the same that we do!

I would not say we were strict with our child, but we were careful about certain activities and movies our child was allowed to see when she was in elementary school.

These other kids may have access to all of this because they have older siblings. That does not mean your child should also be exposed to all of this. I promise, not everybody is 2 years older than him and playing these games and watching these movies.

Make sure he is involved in scouts, church and other outside activities.. Our daughter found a group of friends that had her interest. She was not a "wanna bee". She liked what she liked and had her own interest and did not try to be cool. She was happy being herself.