I am with you Todd, I am in that camp also. God knows we all like to beat the living daylights out of these azzholes, dad's included but its just too costly for 15 second of letting out our frustrations.

When my son was 9 he got bullied by some older kids on the bus. When my wife told me I called the father of the main boy and told him about the situation. He did the right thing and his kid apologized the next day and it never happened again. By High Sch my son was 6' 2" and 190 lbs so not too many people wanted to try him. Trust me I wanted blood when I heard about the incident but I gave the kids father a chance and he turned out to be a decent guy.

Bullies are pussies (can you type that word in here?)

They either get to bully you or get to sue you...no other results. I had a neighbor's kid try to get into a fight with me and although I am not a big guy, I had 6" and 50 lbs on his scrawny ass.

Two scenarios, I fight him and get my ass kicked by a 5'4", 120 lbs weakling or

I kicked the living **** out of him and he sues me for everything.

Which is the scenario where I win?

Nostatic you are not in the minority. I have said the same thing as you along with others here.

Whats WRONG with the majority of today's Kid's?

Look at their parents...monsters create LITTLE monsters...which create more monsters.

I am in the camp of defend yourself. Sure, try to defuse the situation, or walk away if you can.
If not, and the bully keeps on being the azzhat he is, the gloves are off. Let him know that even if he wins, he is going to know he was in a fight. Go all Ralphie on him, just like in 'A Christmas Story'.

When we (a lot of us anyway) were growing up in the 50's, 60' and 70's, all the parents knew this too. Your actions have consequences, and if you are bully, then you got what you deserved. They knew about taking responsibility for actions. I remember my dad took me over to someone's house that I had hurt, unintenionally, to apologize to the parents. I felt like crap before and during that apology.
The problem now is, and this is what happened to Bob (sunroof), is that parents don't take any responsibility anymore. Everyone is a victim, it's not my fault, oh how could my little angel be a bully, etc, etc, etc, ad-naseum.... So, then the parents sue because 'it's not their fault, look what your kid did to mine'. And another part of the problem is that there are always lawyers out there who take on these cases.

It is perfectly fine to defend yourself, just don't be the one starting it. Sometimes, there is no other option and violence does solve problems.
Craig

The scenario where you bully the bully back, you're just a lot smarter about it.

There was this certain 6'th grade teacher that my son had last year...Long story short, I made her life a living hell until she learned to leave not only my son alone, but behave better with the rest of the class. It's fun when you get to toss a nice pile of irony in the school administrations desk.

This is our motto as well. Throw the first punch and life is really gonna suck back at home. We have a big property with lots and lots of holes to dig and who needs a mobile phone, or friends, or dinner, or movies anyway. That big fun event you were planning to go to...bust out the school books and study kid.

We have always supported our kids if/when they have to defend themselves. My son has done so twice. First time in middle school he got jumped on the basketball court by 2 boys. The playground attendant pulled Zack off the instigator just as he was going to drop an elbow on the kids head. Zack got 3 days suspension for that one and the instigator got 1 day... Second time was at baseball practice in High School. New tall kid who apparently can wrestle trash talks Zack in front of the team. Call him out and Zack refuses. Finally grabs Zack from behind and well the kid's wrestling is not up to par with Zack's grappling and submission hold. Coaches let it all go down. No suspensions or reports but new nicknames were created that lasted the entire season.