Bullies

Do people that bully others when they were younger feel bad about it now?
The ones that were bullied when younger, do they stop the cycle or do they themselves continue to do it in their adulthood? I've seen ones that claim they were bullied in school that bully people now. It's sad because they preach about how bad they were bullied and you'd think they would feel strongly about preventing it when they get older. Nope. It seems as though they think they have the right to make fun of others now because what they went through. Retaliation does not make you any less of a bully. The "They did it to me so I can do it back" mentality doesn't solve anything. When you react that way do you feel vindicated? You feel like you gave them a taste of their own medicine and try to justify it by pointing out how they did you wrong. But in turn just showed that you are no better. You sank to their level.
When I was younger there was no such thing as cyber bullying, People were picked on in person meaning that it was generally by people you knew. Cyber bullying takes a whole new form. People that you don't even know taking the meanest jabs at you through the internet. So much so that people actually commit suicide over it. Bullied victims are 7 to 9% more likely to consider suicide according to a study by Yale University. According to a study by ABC News over 30,000 children stay home every day due to the fear of being bullied. How sad is that.

A bit of a confessional story here. I remember in elementary My sister and I were waiting for Grandma to come and pick us up. We were waiting by the big tree with our jump rope. A girl came up to us and said she wanted to play. She was in my grade. She was the type of "chatty, everybody talk to me" personalities. We really didn't want to play, not because of who she was, We just didn't wanna play. She insisted so we said yes. I got annoyed and yanked my end of the jump rope hard enough that my sister's flew out of her hand. It gave the girl a rope burn on the back of her knee. The girl cried, I felt bad and apologized. Another girl who saw this went to the office and told on us. As upset as I was it didn't take me until after high school to realize that the girl telling on us did the right thing. My sister was innocent in this and I knew she felt bad for what I did to this girl. I didn't mean to hurt her. At the time I just thought of the "tattletale" as a little big mouth twat. Needless to say she herself turned out to be not very nice in high school. The term Bitch was used by others quite often to describe her. But just because I didn't like the girl's attitude didn't give me the right to do what I did.
Is there a difference between "kids being kids" vs "bullying"?  That's a fine line in my opinion.
I've seen it called "bullying" when 2 kids are playing on a playground and one gets hurt by the other and it's an outrage and the one that pushed is now a bully. When they BOTH were playing with each other. it was an accident but it gets that harsh label.

Do you remember every incident you've ever done that hurt someone else when you were younger?
Normally you always remember the terrible things that happened TO you, not BY you. I might have done more things that I would be ashamed of now but is it a good thing that I don't remember more? You tend to block things out of your memory, maybe for good reason.
This next story is probably my karma from the previous story.
High School, chubby, coke bottle glasses and the usual... low self esteem. Walking on the side walk. Guy comes up and puts is arm around my shoulder "Hey you wanna go out?" me:"what?" he laughs in my face and goes back to his friends who are now laughing at the complete douchy display, but in their eyes, he was cool. He just made fun of a weird girl minding her own business. I remember that. I remember his name. I remember what I was wearing and where I was walking from. I remember I cried in shame as I walked to the portable building to hang out with my friends before homeroom started, they asked me what was wrong and I said nothing. I don't think I ever told anyone that story, maybe just my sister.
Or because of my glasses people in my class would call me "grandma". I remember bringing candy to class and giving it to the popular kids just so they would be nice to me, and when I didn't have candy, I would get made fun of all over again. I don't hold grudges. But it's something that I would never forget. I can't imagine what others hold in their head. Things that others went through similar or worse. How they dealt with being constantly picked on, if they forgotten, if they forgave, if they grew past it. But keep in mind that back then our bullies weren't as horrid as kids are now.
That just shows that the terrible things that happen TO you, you don't forget. Do people really get satisfaction from putting others down? To make someone feel so bad to the point where they feel killing themselves is the only way you will stop.
To raise your children in this day and age to have no tolerance for bullying and to stand up for themselves in a way that does not resort to violence is the strongest thing you can do. Teaching them to not be ashamed to be who they are, teaching them right from wrong, and giving them every ounce of support is the greatest thing you can do for the next generation.
All of that of course, is just my opinion.