We know about school yard bullies – kids that don’t play well with others, pick on those who may be not as strong or agile as they are, or in the classroom to those who may not be as wise as another child.

We know about cyber bullying – those who use social media to attack others. A lot of the time it is because they can be ‘anonymous’ and you criticize others, be rude, mean and abusive because, hey, it’s the internet. I can hide behind my computer and say what I want, what are you going to do to me?

And then there are those who take to the phones to be bullies. You know, the ones that don’t hear the answer they are looking for, or have been hung up on by someone else and then you are the next point of contact. For whatever their reasons could be, they turn to behavior that I would consider to be more than just bullying, but abusive.

Recently I have had experience with phone bullying. I am not sure what sets people off to behave in a way that would bring someone to tears. To be yelled at in such a way that you can’t even complete a sentence and have a conversation. To make you shake and be uncertain of what to do next. To be sworn at and then hung up on. That one I felt was cowardly, tell someone to F-off and then hang up on them. You are the big girl on the playground that needs the last word.

I wonder if these phone bullies have children? What messages are they sending to them? What messages were they taught as children? I wonder. I just do.