What’s a good revenge against bullies?

They say to fight them where it hurts the most.

In this story, OP taught her daughter to fight back against her bullies by insulting her and telling her something below the belt.

Did she do the right thing? You be the judge!

Relevant background: My (43F) daughter Becky (10) has struggled with leukemia since she was 5 years old (finally nearing remission, we hope!!).

As a side effect of the chemo, she lost her hair. She’s a bit self conscious (and found a wig to be very uncomfortable), but everyone at her school is quite supportive.

She usually wears a baseball hat or beanie. She’s never run into any bullying because of this until now.

OP’s daughter requested to join a summer camp.

My daughter wanted to go to a YMCA day camp this summer, and her doctor cleared her.

Of course, I signed her up.

Unfortunately, there’s a clique of girls there that have been straight up vile.

Meet Jenny…

My daughter came home crying the first day because the queen of this clique (we’ll call her Jenny) gave her the nickname ‘Lex’ (as in Lex Luthor; it’s comic book week), and wouldn’t stop when my daughter asked her to.

I went to the counselor the next morning, and pretty much asked wtf?

He said that he talked with Jenny and the clique about it, and they will stop.

Jenny’s clique continues to bully OP’s daughter.

They didn’t. It just got worse.

They started a game of “steal Jenny’s hat and keep it away from her.”

Counselor was some feckless teenage dude that did all to stop this.

My daughter wanted to try and stay in the camp because she was making friends there who actually stood up for her.

OP taught her daughter to fight back.

I decided to arm her with a bit of secret “adult” information.

Jenny is the daughter of a couple going through a nasty public divorce.

I told my daughter that next time Jenny harasses her, she should tell Jenny that she is the reason for her parents’ divorce, and that they both want to get rid of her.

Probably not true, but certainly a devastating insult to a tween.

The plan worked!

This worked quite well.

Becky hit Jenny with divorce slam yesterday, and it was super effective!

Becky was beaming when I picked her up. Jenny was inconsolable, and the counselor looked like he had just come back from ‘Nam.

OP stood up for both her and Becky.

He asked for a sit down with us, and told me I shouldn’t encourage my daughter to insult other campers.

He said that Jenny was just stressed from the divorce, and was misplacing her anger on Becky.

I said that my daughter is not going to be a punching bag, and I will continue to teach and encourage her to hit back.

AITA?

Do you think she did the right thing? Let’s look at how other users react to this story.

Like they can’t understand this?

Yep, this is exactly what happened.

Smart response here.

This user shares a very good point.

Exactly! Short but straightforward.

Sometimes, we have to put bullies in their proper place!

If you liked that story, read this one about grandparents who set up a college fund for their grandkid because his parents won’t, but then his parents want to use the money to cover sibling’s medical expenses.