I have a major issue with what society is teaching our children. I’m all for teaching our kids to be kind to others. That being said, teaching our kids that they have to be friends with everyone is unrealistic.

My son is being bullied at school and a kid won’t keep his hands off him. My son has asked said kid to keep his hands to himself repeatedly. He’s mentioned to friends and adults that the kid won’t keep his hands off him and that he doesn’t like being touched by this person. Instead of doing something about the kid who’s touching my son, my son was made to apologize to this kid for speaking up about the fact that doesn’t want to be touched by him.

We shouldn’t have to be friends with everyone, you don’t have to get along with everyone. We should most certainly still be kind when dealing with people but we most certainly shouldn’t have to be friends with our bullies! And last time I checked if I don’t want someone touching me as an adult and they don’t listen. I have every right to make them stop. Why shouldn’t kids have the same right?

I read an article online over the weekend where a little boy made a poster and asked a little girl in front of the whole cafeteria to be his Valentine, the little girl said no. The mother of the little boy then took to social media to complain about how wrong it was of this little girl to say no. As a result of the mom’s post the following day the little boy was showered with attention and asked by several others to be their Valentine complete with posters stating he could do better than the original little girl.

So let me see if I have this straight. According to this mom it’s not OK for the little girl to politely say no? Are you kidding me?!? I spend a ton of time teaching my boys the right way to treat girls which also includes not embarrassing them. I specifically told one of the boys that I felt he shouldn’t ask a little girl to be his girlfriend in a very public way for exactly this reason as well as because if she said no I didn’t want him to be embarrassed either.

Saying no isn’t being mean and whoever decided that it was thinking about the message that sends. Do we really want kids to think they can’t say no. We have spent years preach that no means no when it comes to our bodies that saying no and not being listen to is rape when it comes to sex. If we teach kids that they can’t say no when they are asked on dates where does the line get drawn? This is sending the wrong message to kids and in my opinion will cause far more damage down the road!