"How to deal with bullies", according to my Dad:

[Demsrule86]

15. Your Dad sounds like my Dad...only on number four he would have added pick up a two by four

or whatever is lying around to even the odds and keep your thumb inside your fist. We lived in Jersey for a while, Teaneck. And there was this kid who sent us home crying almost on a daily basis...now I had three brothers and a sister... There were two kids in his family; he had a younger sister. My Dad finally had enough. He said there are five of you and one of him. If you come back crying one more time, I will give you more to cry about.

So the next time the kid went after one of us, we all jumped him and pummeled him my two younger brothers bit him and my sister pulled his hair and slapped him. My older brother and I punched him. We sent him home with a bloody nose and crying. Now I am a woman...but hey I was a Navy brat and Dad felt every person needed to defend himself or herself. And he taught us. He grew up in a rough area of Chicago.

He was a character. I miss him every day. My Dad (unfairly I think because my sister and I took advantage of it) would punish the boys severely if they hit a girl including their sisters. When my one brother pointed out that the girl he was punished for hitting was a head taller than him, Dad, merely said. Real men do not hit women ever-no exceptions.

Thanks for the trip down memory lane!