Please don't use that phrase about sticks and stones. It is a bullies' charter to use demeaning and humiliating language, which heals far less quickly than physical damage. I don't think the "character building" effect of what I went through at school kicked in until I was 45, and very nearly all of that was the verbal sort. The only people I hear using it at school are those who wish to diminish the significance of their words, and give themselves permission to continue.

Penny