Empowerment and Confidence with a Shield Chant

It’s dinner time. After a long day at work, and picking up kids, you find yourself finally sitting down to and having a chance to listen to your child’s day. Some of what they say is enthusiastic musings of letter learning, mathematics, and science. They sound full of empowerment and confidence. Then they get to recess. Suddenly, the talk is not as enthusiastic.

You learn that your child is being picked on. They are being called stinky or stupid. They have other insults and names thrown at them and you can tell it hurts them deeply.

My approach to handling these items is empowerment and confidence. (And talking to their teacher to clarify the class dynamic) These insults may seem silly to me but they are incredibly real and world ending for your child.

Confidence

First, I reassure them that they are not whatever the other kids are saying. Even providing examples of why they aren’t those things. If they are called stinky, I tell them that’s impossible. Bath time was just last night!

As humans we struggle with confidence. We seek validation and we seek confirmation that the narrative we tell ourselves is true. With children, fitting in and having validation from peers is incredibly important and if unchecked can lead to a very debilitating dependency on others support. Teaching your child to confidently know themselves and to confidently say “No. That bothers me.” is a vital skill that will last a lifetime.

Empowerment

Empowerment leads to better confidence. When your child feels empowered and that they have a say and a voice they are more likely to do things that can seem impossible like standing up for themselves or going and telling a teacher the bullying issue.

I also like to empower my child to do something energetically constructive and protective for themselves. Using their wild imagination, I’ll have them recite the very common phrase:

I am Rubber. You are Glue.
Whatever you say bounces off of me and sticks to you.

I’d say its pretty rare that someone hasn’t heard the phrase. Most of us recited it as a kid or we’ve heard the words thrown out on a school yard.

This little rhyme is the perfect energetic shielding spell. In fact, I plan on teaching this to my young one as soon as he’s ready.

What Makes It So Perfect?

This rhyme is particularly useful because it doesn’t do anything other than return any negative energy back on the person casting it out. It doesn’t take additional revenge and it isn’t confrontational.

In cases of bullying, always always involve and inform any caretakers or teachers. Preventing the behavior from happening is the best option but in case its not always working. Empowering your kid to have their own shield and tell their bully no is also a good thing in my book.

There are occasions where the rhyme doesn’t hold up. Maybe there’s more than one bully or additional intervention is needed on behalf of a teacher. Perhaps you need to help your little one practice the spell. Call them stinky, and have your child imagine themselves as bounce-y rubber and you as really sticky super glue. Then recite it:

I am Rubber. You are Glue.
Whatever you say bounces off of me and sticks to you.

Our children are so diverse and complex with growing minds and hearts. Sometimes they just need a little bit of energetic practice and some teacher intervention to help mitigate the name-calling. Then, next time you sit down to dinner and discuss their day, you can hear all about how the name calling stopped and how they calmly stated their boundaries and spell.

Love and Light to you,