Is Your Child A Bully Or Neighborhood Terror?

I was at the gym today when one of the women was discussing an 11-year old boy in her neighborhood. This young boy has been terrorizing the people around him and vandalizing the common areas of her subdivision. He laughingly pulls up garage sale signs and community signs just for the “fun of it”. He bullies other children in the neighborhood to the point of tears. He has terrified kids with his fowl mouth and aggressive behavior. He drags things into the woods to hide them from their rightful owners. He scatters trash and cans around bushes and lawns.

There is nothing funny when a child is out of control. The mother of this 11-year-old boy denies her son is a trouble-maker even when a police officer told her “I’ve been to your house 3 times over a few months time”. Neighbors complain. Parental denial is often a sign of not knowing what to do; therefore we often do nothing.

Yesterday a young foreign woman knocked on my friend’s door to inquire where this young troublemaker lived, as she wanted to speak to his mother. She was later observed leaving . . . crying. Shortly thereafter the mother and child left the home and only returned the next day. My gut feeling is she was expecting the authorities and wanted to avoid them.

So, what does a young mother of an out-of-control 11-year-old boy do? Children know what they can get by with. The child’s unruly behavior may have begun during his toddler years. Parents often yell or smack or ignore the situation when their children try to take over the rules of home or society. This only arouses resentment and anger in the child.

Especially in the case where single mothers are concerned, sons tend to eventually outweigh and out-power female figures of authority. Adolescent boys know their strengths and can leave their mothers helpless.

Again, I ask, “What is a parent to do with an out of control child?” This is one reason I wrote a program, The Behavior Solution. I hear it all too frequently. If you know a child like my friend described in her neighborhood, send this link to the family. It may help!

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Author: The Behavior Solution – the Child Behavior Repair Kit for Parents