Even though many of us will have gone through some form of bullying during our childhoods, it's never easy to help someone who is currently in that situation. Many kids are told to 'turn the other cheek' or to focus on the fact that 'things will get better' with this problem being a temporary one, but these words rarely help.
The fact is that at school, it's a lot harder to sort these kinds of things out, and an adult perspective isn't always the solution. At the end of the day, everyone has their reasons for the things we do - but the prospect of stepping into the shoes of someone making your life miserable is never a particularly inviting one. After all, what is there to learn from someone who is causing you harm?
Similarly, as a parent you want to make sure your children are safe and happy, which means prioritising them over all else. So when you hear that your son is being bullied by another boy, you may get angry, speak to the school, speak to the bully's parents maybe, but there aren't many that will do what this father did.
Aubey Fontenot heard that his eight-year-old son Jordan was being bullied by another boy at school named Tamarion, but decided to take a new approach to solve the core issue that started the bullying in the first place. With permission from Tamarion's family, he picked the boy up for a little drive around Houston, so they could talk about.
Soon, he found out that Tamarion was lashing out because he himself was being bullied by other children for his lack of clean clothes. When Fontenot called the boy's mother, he discovered that they were temporarily homeless due to serious financial problems.
That's when he realised that he had the opportunity to make a real difference - not just for his son, but for Tamarion too. He took the young boy out to shop for some clean clothes and give him a confidence boost, and it worked wonders.
Fontenot said:
"We have no clue what these children are going through these days because a lot of us just don’t care. And this is not an uncommon story for a lot of people … so I spent a lot of my day yesterday shopping and teaching this young man about self-respect. Integrity. Morals. Confidence. And other things that consist of going from a troubled youth to a great man."
From there, he sat Tamarion and Jordan together, allowing them to talk it out - leading to the best possible outcome: the pair have now become friends!
Not stopping there, Fontenot started a GoFundMe so that anyone following the story could do their part to help Tamarion and his family out - and his followers jumped right on the issue.
This story has had a knock-on effect on Twitter too, with many others inspired by these events to reevaluate how she thinks about child bullies.
While bullying stories rarely have satisfying endings, this one looks like it does. If we all follow in this dad's footsteps, we can turn toxic situations into something far more positive!
