Is my pre-schooler being bullied?

I haven't been able to concentrate the whole day. Is my baby boy being bullied in school? H woke up this morning telling me that he didn't want to go to school. Hubs and I were just discussing the night before about maybe taking H out of school for a year since he didn't want H to "burn out". I'm not sure what he meant by being burnt out since kids are just meant to play in preschool. Anyway, I didn't really want to argue so we left it at that, i.e. to be further discussed... haha. So, back to my earlier point, when H told me that he didn't want to go to school I wanted to know why. It took quite some persuading before he told me that he didn't want to go to school because his friends didn't want to play with him.

H, unlike his toughie little sis, is rather sensitive. He gets upset easily. I also noticed that he doesn't quite play with other kids. I mean, he loves playing with his cousins, and even my neighbour's older son, but with other kids.. hmmmm... he doesn't immediatly gravitate towards them. Then I remembered asking him about his friends in school a few nights back and he told me that there's this boy in class (let's call him N) who's mad at him. He claimed that N gives him the stare when he gets into class every morning. I didn't think much of it then and suggested that he asked N why he is mad. So everything sort of fell together with this morning's episode, and it suddenly dawned on me - what if H is being bullied in school? I need to prepare him on how to face/handle bullies!

So it being first thing in the morning (I didn't have time to google for parenting advice and I needed to get him ready for school), I made up some scenarios and play acted how he can react in an amusing way. I figured if I made it funny (he started giggling non-stop) then he won't be afraid or upset when put in such circumstances. Instead, at least I hope, he will be able to imitate what I did and avert the situation without aggression.

Perhaps I'm just being paranoid and this whole episode is nothing more than a typical playgound squabble. Well... better be overly prepared than be sorry I'd say. No one messes with the Momster's kids! :p

Picture courtesy of Childcare Education Institute