An Unpleasant Neighbour

By ALICE O’BRIEN

Alice O’Brien Counselling, Newmarket

Let’s say you get a new neighbour, and that neighbour is very unpleasant. Let’s give him a made-up name, we’ll call him Ronald Slump. So, Ronald is a bit of a bully, and when he moves in next door he starts shouting and roaring- but not at you so you ignore it, relieved it’s not you. After that he tells other people, people who have been in the area before he moved in, people who are pleasant and kind and work hard. Ronald tells them that they have no right to be there so he builds a big wall to keep them out. Next he targets the O’ Briens in

number 40- he says they shouldn’t exist, that he is going to make it a law that they no longer have a right to the life they know, because he is not an O’Brien so they don’t matter.

But, still Ronald has left you alone so you say nothing, but what happens if you continue to keep quiet- well Ronald gets more powerful because Ronald is a bully.

There are lots of reason why we should stand up to a bully:

• Standing up to a bully, even in a small way can make you feel empowered and lead to a feeling of confidence.

• Bullies often target those who can’t or don’t resist. So, sometimes we need to stand up to the bully for others even if the issues don’t directly affect us

• Standing up to a bully can break the cycle, when others see that the tactics of bullying are not effective, they are less inclined to stand behind the bully.

It is fair to say that bullying is not acceptable. As for our neighbour Ronald Slump- he is a small man with a big shadow for now. And when small men cast big shadows, it usually means the sun is setting- hopefully the sun will set on Ronald soon, and we can all go back to enjoying our neighbourhood.