Mothers are keen to help their children combat bullying, but we mustn’t forget that bullies aren’t always packaged in school kids’ bodies. Adults bully, too.

As we saw with Jennifer Livingston, men shame women and women can cut men down to size. Since this is anti-bullying month, it’s only right to pay attention to the bullies that we mothers might encounter. Sadly, I see women regularly in my office who are being bullied and I can tell you that this is having a life-changing impact on them and their kids. Let’s take a look at a few I saw recently.

Carol is 45, has 12-year-old twin boys and is married to a prominent lawyer.She is a stay-at-home mom, and her husband just filed for divorce. Several years ago, he complained that she wasn’t doing the household accounting well enough so he took it over. Since then, he has racked up tens of thousands of dollars of debt and maxed out their credit cards. He insisted that she have her name taken off the credit cards (which is a good thing for her now) as well as their checking account. Shortly after he filed, he appeared at a school…