Nursery World - To the point... (20)

This week's columnist Tim Gill says we need sometimes to leave children to sort out their own differences 'Dad, those boys are bullying us,' said my eight-year-old daughter. We were at a park enjoying the sunshine, and she and a friend were searching for treasure. The three boys in question (all under five, none of whom we had met before) had spotted them and had been trying to wind the girls up by sing-saying, 'we can see your treasure, we know what you're doing'.

'Dad, those boys are bullying us,' said my eight-year-old daughter. We were at a park enjoying the sunshine, and she and a friend were searching for treasure. The three boys in question (all under five, none of whom we had met before) had spotted them and had been trying to wind the girls up by sing-saying, 'we can see your treasure, we know what you're doing'.

In truth, my daughter wasn't overly distressed. She was soon away again and the boys were no more trouble. But what stayed with me after the incident, trivial in itself, was my daughter's use of the word 'bullying.' For it seems to me that her choice to use that word, with all its connotations of systematic cruelty, is far from trivial. It goes to the heart of some fundamental issues about our adult responsibility for children's safety.

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