It was a beautiful warm Friday. My girlfriend and I decided to visit and hang out with my son, her niece, and nephew. We asked them what they wanted to do. All three voted excitedly to go play at a park near by. On our way there, CJ and her sister confessed that there were a lot of bullies at this park, and that they have been bullied before. My girlfriend assured them that this will not happen today. 🙂

Sure enough, since it is still spring break there were kids out there. Age ranged from nine to their teens. One male teen with shaggy hair stood and stared at us as we walk pass them. He was groping his girlfriend, talking loudly, swearing, and started slap-boxing with his other buddies on the basketball court. I identified him as the “alpha male” of the crowd. The rest pretty much acted the same way following this guy’s lead. All just sitting around, being loud, and unproductive. I even saw a couple of the teen girls lied down in the middle of the street to wait for cars to pass. Definitely a stupid way to play chicken.

My kids decided to play tag. I, of course, acting with child-like wonder at the age of 40, put a little twist and invented the Zombie Tag game. At first, it was just four of us. Then one kid started to mingle in our game. He was climbing on things. You could tell he wanted to join in the action. I walked up to him, and asked him if he wanted to be a zombie. He immediately nodded his head with a tight smile on his face. His name is Bishop. Then another kid joined…then another, and another, and another, and so on until I introduced them all to my son, and my girlfriend’s niece and nephew. Needless to say we left the park with no bully incident and left the park with many new friends.

Walking back home, CJ and his younger sister, Sidney excitedly told us they already knew most of these kids, but this was the first time they talked and played with them. Now, how can you put a price on that and their smiling faces?

Message: Parents, teachers, or any adults who care, pay attention at how children (specially your own) treat each other. They all need guidance. Learn more about bullying, and hazing. Work together and help stop this youth issue. Bullying does kill. Make a difference and help prevent teen or preteen suicide.

Watch the clip of this event. I wish I captured more of this fantastic day when the crowd of kids was so much bigger, but I was too busy playing with them. I was only able to capture toward the end of the game as we were leaving the park.

If you want to share a story, please comment or contact me, Guro Mike “Tandang” Eugenio.