A Florida mother was arrested this month for allegedly stabbing
her two sons' bullies in the back with box cutters. News reports
stated that after calming down an altercation between her sons
and a group of boys, the mother reignited the situation and
attacked the boys, sending two to the hospital. Last year, a
teenage boy posted something nasty and hurtful in response to a
teenage girl's Facebook posting. The girl was distraught,
contemplated hurting herself and complained to her mother that
she had been bullied. This caused the mother to become
distraught. A short time later, police say, the mother saw the
boy in a mall and took matters into her own hands, literally.
She allegedly choked him. But the reaction among many to the
news reports was that the story was about a heroic mother
seeking vengeance against a terrible bully on behalf of her
victimized daughter, not an adult choking a child. Although
these two examples are extreme reactions to alleged bullying,
many of us are overreacting to childhood aggr