There is no easy way to approach bullying, especially since it ranges from teasing to name calling to actual physical threats or aggression. I think it is best to have your child try to work it out him/herself if they can. However, when one boys spent years being mean to my son (sporadically), I finally had enough and called the mom about it. The bullying stopped immediately. I think if it is happening in school, the teacher and administrators need to know about it and step in

Brainstorm with your child different ways to handle it. When another child was verbally agressive, my son responded by saying "Are you sure you are XX years old? You sound like you are 5". She never verbally dissed my son again. At my son's age now, he might mention he is having issues with a friend but is quick to add he wants to work it out himself. I will only step in if I feel like they need/want me to.

On the flip side, if I see one of my kids being unkind to another child, I turn it around and remind them that they wouldn't want to be treated that way. It helps them gain a perspective of bullying from both angles.

i remind my children that the kids who are the most aggressive bullies are usually the most frightened inside. i tell my kids, who are naturally kind-hearted and passive, that standing up to a bully once may be all they need to do to let the bully know they will not be messed with. we also talk about their role as bystander when they see children being bullied. they like the feeling of championing the underdog and "helping" a child stand up to an aggressor. when i took a bully problem to the director of my sons's school she gave me some advice: "if you don't tell the administrators about the problem, there is no way we can take action to help solve it" and "don't wait until this has gone on for months and months before you let us know there is an issue."

I think it depends on the level of bullying. If my kids had a problem at school that I believe they can handle (another child cutting in line in front of them repeatedly etc) I would give them the guidance and the encouragement to handle it on their own by talking to that person and if that doesn't work, have my child ask her teacher for help. Hopefully this would give her confidence in handling situations and prevent future problems. If the bullying was more aggressive and made my child scared or uncomfortable, I would definitely have a meeting with the teacher (or parent if outside of school) to come to a solution and work from there.

The first thing the child should do is tell a teacher, administrator or some other adult. Schools these days take this seriously.
We have had this problem in our house and our son actually was being bullied on the bus. He told the bus drivers and even the school administration and this seemed to make the situation worse. After all of this and me telling him to just ignore the bully he finally snapped.
I don't condone what he did but everyone has a breaking point and he reached his. The school administration did realize this and knew that he had told them before so thankfully he was not in serious trouble but it just goes to show you what they say about bullies