Have you ever loved someone, but they bullied you? Did you feel stuck, or have tools that you felt confident using to navigate the situation? Did you have someone to turn to for help?

This episode we are reading a letter from a writer whose childhood best friend, was also her bully. Their relationship started when she was only six-years-old, and continued for eight years. She navigated the friendship with the knowledge she had at the time, but the relationship was hard on her. The school system made it even more challenging. School never felt like a safe place for our writer, but it was for her bully.

Tara and Jess talk about some ideas on how we can make public schools a safer place for everyone, including the importance of prioritizing mental health, and having access to counsellors.

Parents and caregivers can do a lot to make home safe, so that kids feel they have a trusted adult to turn to for help.

Jess highlights the importance of voting, it makes a difference.

Tara shares how the school system is still operating from it's original framework from almost 200 years ago. https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/history-of-education#:~:text=The%20leading%20figure%20in%20Ontario,which%20the%20school%20promoter%20functioned.

Jess share about reaching out to old friends and the positive impact it can have.

Tara shares about a harmful female friendship. She also opens up about not always being the kindest friend when she was younger and how she reached out to an old friend to apologize and to own her behaviour and struggles.

Jess shares about her husband being bullied when he was younger, and then became the bully in turn.

A big thank you to our letter writer for sharing her story with us!

*Subscribe to our podcast! It tells the app that you like our content.*

Music credit:Music from #Uppbeathttps://uppbeat.io/t/mark-july/today-is-the-dayLicense code: PR8M0SMSX51KSUG9