Dad praised for Mean Girls response after learning daughter is school bully

01 February 2024 , 15:28

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He came to learn his daughter was the school bully (stock photo) (Image: Getty Images/Blend Images)

A dad has been praised for his response after discovering his daughter has been bullying her classmates. Despite only being in preschool, he says his daughter started showing clear signs she was quickly becoming the 'mean girl'.

Wanting to nip her bad behaviour in the bud, he made her watch the movie Mean Girls and discussed the characters' actions throughout. He said on Reddit: "She would talk about refusing to play with someone because she didn’t like their clothes and convinced her friends not to play with other kids.

"I watched the edited TV version of Mean Girls with her and we stopped and talked about how the kids treated each other and how they might be feeling. She started being nicer all around." But he says what really made her see 'right from wrong', was becoming a victim of bullying in the first grade, when another student started picking on her.

He added: "Now in middle school she is quick to identify mean girls and bullies, doesn’t let herself become their victims and befriends kids who are victims and helps them connect with other nice kids." While most users praised him for his parenting, others shared their own experiences of discovering their child was the school bully.

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Rachel McAdams (as Regina George), and Lindsay Lohan (as Cady Heron) in Mean Girls (CBS via Getty Images)

One user said: "Not all heroes wear capes - sometimes, they were villains first." Another user added: "Thank you for catching this early and doing real work to fix it!" A third user said: "I was a child who was a bully in elementary school. My dad came to pick me up from school early and saw me being terrible to a kid. He went old-fashioned and started bullying me and told me this is how it feels. It really taught me empathy and I feel like I turned myself around."

One more user added: "At home, my son always went on about how much cooler he was than everybody else, and I started to worry it would influence his behaviour at school, so I told him to think differently. Soon after, we got a call from the school about him disparaging other kids."

"Needless to say, he faced some harsh discipline (no Fortnite for eight weeks) and was taught about empathy and other viewpoints. Four weeks into his punishment, we were told at parent-teacher interviews that not only was he being nicer to other kids, but was also more positive in general! I’m very happy."

Paige Freshwater