DAD CONFRONTS BULLY BY TREATING HIM LIKE SON
Growing up, you were probably told to confront your bully to end the torment, a move that usually led to a violent altercation. And so, with the understanding that violence only begets violence, one father stepped up to his son’s bully in an unexpected way: by showing him a little kindness.
Houston dad Aubrey Delinzer, who himself was bullied as a child, admitted that initially he was angry to learn that his son Jordan was also being victimized by a kid named Tamarion. Aubrey realized he needed to try a new approach to break the cycle so he took Tamarion for a ride in his car and asked him, “Why?”
Tamarion confided to Aubrey that he too was a victim of bullying too. “He said, ‘All the other kids, they make fun of me.’”
Aubrey found out he was being bullied for not having clean clothes n clean shoes because his family was currently homeless
Aubrey reached out to teachers to speak about Tamarion and possible bullies, and they implied that there might be turbulence in his home life.
Aubrey, a tattoo artist, realized that Tamarion needed to be treated like a son — not a bully — so he took him shopping. He lifted Tamarion up and encouraged him to be happy. After the shopping trip, Aubrey sat his son Jordan and Tamarion down across from each other, and for a while there was nothing but awkward silence. Eventually, the two started to speak.
“One kid said one thing, another kid said something. I said we need to settle this stuff like men,” Delinzer said.
Today you can find the two boys playing video games together at Aubrey’s tattoo parlor, a result that has the father identifying as a “first-time mentor.”