Teach children to respect others

They don't teach empathy in schools. If children know about this it's usually because they have parents who live by being empathetic. Respect is taught at schools yet it's only marginal and doesn't have the full weight of mum and dad behind it.

Put it this way, if school is teaching your child respect while you're not teaching your child respect or doing the opposite; raising someone who is hateful, bigoted, racists etc., any respect learned at school may be undone by the parents negative attitudes.

There is nothing more ugly than a person who puts others down for having a disability, looking different, being different, not dressing cool, being over weight. This is bullying and bullying stems from not being taught to respect all people because essentially we all deserve respect.
Teach your children to treat people the way they want to be treated. It's really simple. If you don't want your child to be beat up teach them it's not ok to beat people up. If you don't want your child being verbally harassed teach them it's not ok to do this to others. Even if your child has no disability you know if they had one you wouldn't want them being picked on for it so teach your child not to do this to others.

Here is a story of a young man who is threatening to rape a girl (warning contains strong language). This is where teaching your children respect comes into play.

It is your job as parents to make sure your children respect everyone.  Some say respect is earned. To that I say disrespect is earned and by that I mean that we should respect all people until a person does something to warrant our lack of respect. Even then we should conduct ourselves respectfully. That is: even if you feel someone doesn't deserve respect don't disrespect them anyway, call them out if you want or just move along. If you're standing up for yourself then do so in a respectful manner.

The attached story highlights what disrespect looks like. The person resorted to put downs, threats and bad language and in the end he looks bad. He could have a valid reason for wanting to lash out yet his response is so over the top it's easy to lose respect for him.

Teach your children to be respectful of others as often as you can while they're growing up and by the time they're adults it will be normal for them and they'll pass that on.

Have you been disrespected?  Have your children?

How did you handle the situation?