I'm a parent, I have four children and only one, as of now, is in school. I worry...the worry is extended to all my children and it sprouts from when I was a child in 5th grade. I worry that my children will be bullied because they were raised by me. I don't know what changed from kindergarten, 1st grade, 2nd grade, 3rd grade, and 4th grade, but as soon as I hit 5th grade that's when the bullying started for me. The summer before 5th grade went as normal, but for some reason I had changed in the eyes of my peers when 5th grade began. They stared making fun of my speech impediment, something none of my peers had ever done before. They also started calling me names, monkey face was amongst them. I did not know till I was much older that this was actually a racist name to call Irish people. I am part Irish and something that I have thought of more and more as being an adult is that another child of my age back then would never have thought about me as being any different than any of them, the only conclusion that I can rationally think of is that a parent of one of the children I went to school with must have told them that I was a monkey face.

That is only when it started and when it got started it went down hill fast. From then on I got bullied: named called, pushed around and harassed. I was branded as being different. As an adult this has followed me, the feeling of being different, unique, and weird. If I put on a mask I can pretend that I embrace it, but that is in an act. I have a fear that my children will be bullied because they were raised by a "freak". My oldest is in 4th grade now...she had a speech impediment, but has already graduated from speech therapy. That is something that I never accomplished, however I'm still nervous for all my babies.

I'm an adult, and most people have grown out of it, I think, but the voices of so many bullies still loom over me. If there is something I can do to prevent my babies from being bullied and other children from going through what I went through....well I'm here to stand up for that!!!