Body Safety Blog

Research suggests that false allegations of child sexual abuse are relatively uncommon outside of specific contexts, such as custody disputes. Studies indicate that false reports of sexual abuse occur at low rates, often estimated at less than 5% of cases.

For example, Yates’ (1991) review found that false accusations in non-custody-related cases are rare, especially when compared to accusations in custody disputes, where motivations like securing child custody may come into play (and sadly, this has been weaponized by lawyers and the judicial system to claim parental alienation in cases where children really ARE being abused and the safe parent is villanized for 'coaching' a child to disclose- but that's another post for another day).

Furthermore, in educational settings, Charol Shakeshaft’s research on educator misconduct indicated that none of the accusations in their sample of educator sexual misconduct cases were found to be fabricated.

In these cases,...

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...

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?

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...

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!

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