Mom Heartbroken and Seeking Advice After Realizing Son Is Bully in Viral Video

A mother went viral on TikTok after sharing her heartbreak about finding out her son was bullying another student. The video, uploaded by @bethgilleland95, has more than 1.7 million views and 8,400 comments since being posted last week.

In the video, Gilleland explained with text that her child told her that another parent "threatened him" for "accidentally" knocking the glasses off his son's face. She said she believed her son's story and that she was initially angry that a parent threatened her 7-year-old son.

But Gilleland wrote that she spoke with her son's bus driver and found out the truth.

"I don't think my heart has ever been as broken," the on-screen text read. "He explained to me that this child is heavyset and he can't get off the bus quickly."

The driver then explained that her son was shoving the boy down the aisle because he was not "fast enough." The on-screen text said the boy politely told her son he was moving as fast as he could but that her son then ripped the glasses off the boy's face and threw them toward the back of the bus.

In the video, Gilleland looked visibly upset and shook her head as the text came up on the screen explaining the incident. As she took her glasses off and began wiping her eyes, the text explained that she went to the boy's house and found out that his father never threatened her son, he just simply asked why he threw the glasses.

"I was SO bullied in school for my weight and I don't condone this behavior and it's NOT tolerated," the text read. "I don't know where to go from here."

According to StopBullying.gov, it is important for parents to have a discussion with their children about bullying to answer their questions. Some children may not be aware that their behavior is considered bullying, for others, they might not feel comfortable talking about being bullied by another child.

It is also important to get to the root of why the child is behaving that particular way and understand that the child has a problem and not deny that something must be done about it.

"The goal is to help them learn from this and work through the reasons they did it so you can help them find other, healthy ways to deal with their feelings or situations that come up," StopBullying.gov recommended. "You will also need to work with the school or parents to deal with it. Bullying is a behavior that can be changed. Your child will need help and support to learn new behaviors."

Kristin Carothers, a clinical psychologist, told the Child Mind Institute that it is also important to look internally to see if the child is modeling behaviors they see at home by their parents. She recommended integrating "daily check-ins" with younger children to keep tabs on how they are doing and to keep lines of communication open.

In Gilliand's video, the text explained that she thought she was "obviously doing something wrong" in the way she was parenting her child. The video ended with her saying her son plans on apologizing to the boy and inviting him over for a playdate.

In the comments, many people came to Gilliand's defense saying she did the right thing by investigating further into the matter and going over to the boy's house.

"The fact that you investigated, listened, and are correcting the behavior means you're doing something right," one user commented. "Stand your ground mama."

"If every parent reacted like this when they found out their child is a bully instead of defending their child's behavior, we would have less bullying," another said in the comments.

One user also recommended teaching her son the "five-second rule" to show him that he shouldn't comment on something a person can't change in less than five seconds. For example, a kid can quickly get food out of their teeth in less than five seconds but a kid can't change their appearance in five seconds so it should not be commented on.