Pink Shirt day is nothing more than virtue signaling
Yesterday was Pink Shirt day... and my son refused to wear one.
He said:
And here's the big elephant in the room that we are not talking about, just how rampant bullying really is!
It is worse now than ever! One of the hardest parts is to watch the bullies, both adults and children alike, wear these pink shirts. How wearing a pink shirt for some is nothing more than virtue signalling!
As a Mama to a 13 year old boy, I can tell you without a doubt that the incidence of bullying hasn't gone down. I see more bullying now from both adults and children, than I did 5 years ago. There is not a week that doesn't go by that my son doesn't tell me about a kid at school who is cutting themselves, is depressed, or being severely bullied. This is not ok! We are failing our kids!
Wearing pink shirts was supposed to be about bringing awareness to bullying and decreasing it, yet all I've seen is the opposite. I'm beyond disheartened to see the level of bullying that has taken place over the past couple of years. We, adults, need to step up and start modelling the behaviour we would like from our kids.
How can we expect our children to not bully when this is the example the adults are setting?
What happened to "in the world where you can be anything, be kind?"
I know that there is a lot of pain in the world right now. A lot of people are struggling... but we need to come together and not just virtue signal, but actually show kindness to one another. Set the example we want our children to follow.
When we know better, we do better. We know better, so let's start to do better!
- Agnes (MamaBear)
