It is true though. My mom was right, and your instincts were too! If you don’t fight back, you will get more of it.
I was lucky-I had always been big (not fat, I was muscular) but I was slow and completely uncoordinated. And I wore black plastic military issue-style eyeglasses, which are surely “bully-magnets” in the same way a kid walking home with a Cello case would be a bully magnet. But right after that, I had a growth spurt (and a change of address-my dad retired from the Navy) and I had begun fighting back.
And they left me alone. So, your approach is the correct one. I was too timid to do it for a long time.
Well I was always considered the nerd and picked on in school. My problem was when I did strike back, the violence could get extreme. I used to call it my evil twin Mortimer showing up.
I really had to fight to keep Mortimer at bay cause he scared me too. Once I snapped, well...it could get bad.
Mortimer hasn’t been around for about 40 years now but I know he is still there just waiting for someone to push me too far...
I was bullied in high school (I’m female), and I tried to fight back and kept getting beat up worse. A friend of mine - a large, stocky girl shoved the bully up against the locker and dared her to mess with me again. That was the end if that, lol! Thank the Lord for friends like that!