I don't remember being bullied at school or playing with neighborhood children. I grew up in a small community where everybody knew everybody else and if we did something we shouldn't, our parents would know before we got home. I think that did away with bullying. There was nothing to gain and much to lose from behaving badly. My brother tried to bully me once. I, rather forcefully, convinced him that it was not a good idea. He retreated and didn't try again with me.
There were people in our town who were disabled in one way or another and we would have been severely punished if we made fun of them or teased them in any way. Picking on someone younger or weaker than you was a punishable offense. Any adult witnessing this would have been permitted to intervene and punish the perpetrator. Our parents would be notified and we would be punished again. If two children of equal size and strength were caught fighting, they would have been pulled apart and sent home having received enough punishment from each other to suffice. They would have been bandaged and scolded for fighting when they got home with an extra scolding if they had ruined their clothes in the scuffle. I don't remember any girls getting into any physical fights. We would argue and call the other person some colorful names but it never got physically painful. Now, girls fight with their fists and feet. I don't understand this. Why use fists and get scarred when it never solves anything?
No, I didn't grow up in neverland or Shangra La. I grew up in a small town in the midwest where we were taught to respect each other, get along, and try not to come home with our faces dirty.
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