Teasing kids is something we all may have done at some point. However, teasing comes in two categories – good and bad. No one really minds if their kids are teased in a nice way, but sometimes people take things a bit too far which can hurt children one way or another.

Most of the times, the culprits behind such teasing, or you may even call it bullying, are relatives because they know that you aren’t going to question them no matter how bad they tease your kids.

In some situations, you want to react, but you don’t because you feel that the relationship is too important and lashing out may cause damage. You are right in your thinking but you have to consider your kids’ comfort and mental peace as well. You just can’t let relatives walk all over them. At the same time, you can’t really retaliate in a way that would severe your bond with them.

So, what’s the best way to deal with this situation? Well, there are more than one ways to deal with your relatives in these circumstances and we have outlined them all below.

Start Asking Questions

If your kid is being teased way too much and they don’t like it, then instead of sitting back, start asking random questions. This will shift focus from your child to something else, allowing them to take a breather or even leave the gathering altogether. This is one of the most effective ways of dealing with this problem without hurting any of the parties involved.

Teach Clever Comebacks

Kids that find themselves subjected to teasing most frequently are the shy ones. They don’t respond to anything, at least not wittily, so other people start taking them as easy targets.

This is what you need to change. You can’t let your child be a punching bag for others. You need to teach them some clever comebacks. If they are good at improvising, then it won’t be much of a problem, but if they aren’t really good at it, then you can practice with them.

You can start with a tease and they can respond with one, then they will tease and you will respond with one. Just keep on going back and forth with teases and soon you will have a confident kid capable of facing almost every situation.

Walking Away

Being able to respond to teasing with a clever comeback is great, but not every situation requires it. Sometimes walking away is good enough. If someone teases a particular feature of your kid’s body, then instead of getting offended and responding to that, just teach your kids to say “thanks for noticing” and walk away without showing even a hint of hurt.

This is a defensive strategy because you can’t expect your child to be always on point with comebacks. Sometimes there doesn’t need to be any kind of response at all. In those situations, walking away is your kids’ best option.

So along with teaching them clever comebacks, teach them to walk away in situations where a response isn’t needed.