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Body Safety Blog

A more in-depth analysis on all things body safety, boundaries, consent and current events.

42 Questions To Ask Your Child's School

For many parents, the end of the calendar year is full of celebration for the holidays, but shortly after is the beginning of a new school year! Usually, this is for parents of young children who are entering school for the very first time.

Understandably, many parents trust schools to be safe spaces. That is what is sold to parents as the 'tradition' that is school.

But how exactly can you be so sure? How can we make sure that schools are following proper safety policies and procedures, and who determines those policies and procedures?

I know as a mom of three, having children in the school system, that I have received the school handbook, which typically has a short section on child safety.

Some schools have a separate child safety handbook, but it's still full of basics that are mostly, so parents have information about what's expected of their child and what the school rules are.

It doesn't typically go in depth about how they make sure that staff are safe persons (we assume the...

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Teaching Beyond 'Safe & Unsafe Touch'

 

 

Private part safety has many facets. I'll be sharing more about the nuances and intricacies that can help make teaching private part safety less stressful and more comprehensive.

If you have a toddler, you'll want to check out my upcoming workshop that is specifically for parents in this stage and who are wanting to teach private part safety.

Have you started teaching private part safety and did you know to teach about private part exposure?

 

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Teaching Kids About Self Exploration + Safe Vs Unsafe Touch

 

Body literacy is what we are teaching our kids when we teach them the names of their private parts and about the functions of those parts. This can greatly reduce the risks of sexual abuse.

Here's why.

 

Our (as in everyone's) genitalia, unless medically different, has the most concentration of nerve endings than any other part of the body. It's one of the reasons kids notice this very sensitive part of the body when they begin to have physical self-awareness.

 

This typically happens before or around the time of potty training, which is when they are transitioning to other materials covering those areas of the body (from diaper to underwear) and it makes the sensations of those areas felt more prominently.

 

As kids develop more physical self-awareness, it's natural (and normal) for a child to explore their body and those areas in particular. We don't want to shame this self-exploration/self-pleasure because it is part of healthy development and builds body...

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Sex-Ed As Part Of Abuse Prevention Education with Dr. Nadine Thornhill

 

It can be hard for ANY parent to teach something that wasn't taught to them when growing up. You have few models of how it's done AND if you add your own negative experiences around the topic, it can make it FEEL that much harder. This is why I'm so grateful for experts who can guide us, and show us how much easier it actually IS!

SHOWNOTES

Cue Dr. Nadine Thornhill, sexuality educator and all around awesome human! Nadine is a certified sex educator and Doctor of Education specializing in child and adolescent sexuality. She helps folks access fact-based information, and build strong communication skills so they can teach the kids in their life about for their bodies, building positive relationships, and feeling good about who they are!

She strives to work within sex-positive, queer-positive, anti-oppressive, and pro-choice frameworks.

In her nearly fifteen years as a sexuality educator, she’s worked with thousands of people, and dozens of schools and organizations across...

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COVID + ABUSE PREVENTION on CTV NEWS

 

 

Thank you for the great report Lyds Maria and CTV News and CTV Northern Ontario for spotlighting this important message for parents.
 
I was interviewed by Lydia Chubak from CTV Northern Ontario news about the 3 things parents should be thinking about and taking action on during this quarantine for kids of different ages in terms of abuse prevention.

# 1- Kids who are living with or staying with a child sexual predator parent or another family member, should be getting abuse prevention education (from at least one parent) on what to do at this time (knowing how and who to report to- ei: the other parent, hotline, safety network, etc.) knowing their rights, and body safety, etc.

# 2- Parents who have to work during this time outside of the home (everyone from doctors to grocery store cashiers) and are having to put their kids in the care of family, friends, babysitters, etc., also need to give their kids abuse prevention education (a sort of sensitive crash...
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