Body Safety Blog

Beth Robinson, author of the book "Protecting Children from Predators" says this about how to determine if your child is ready for sleepovers:

• “Are your children old enough to recognize when someone is trying to engage them in inappropriate sexual behavior? The younger the child, the greater the risk when you let them attend a sleepover. Younger children won’t recognize a risky situation until it is too late.”
• “Are your children assertive enough to draw attention to inappropriate overtures from other children or adults? Some children have the confidence to yell or push away someone who makes them uncomfortable, while others are too timid to try to stop an adult or older child from hurting them. No child should attend a sleepover who lacks the confidence and assertiveness to rebuff inappropriate sexual behavior.”
•  “Will your children call you if something unsafe happens at a sleepover? Some children are easily influenced by peers and won’t tell parents if something goes wrong.”
• “H
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I believe that kids should learn about safe vs unsafe touch so that they recognize when abuse is happening.

But that alone is not going to help prevent abuse.

I've talked about how a 50/50 rule is best when it comes to a more effective abuse prevention strategy.

This means that 50% of your work as a parent, when it comes to sexual abuse prevention, should be to teach your child's circle (family members/relatives, educators, caregivers, etc.) about body safety practices and how to implement them.

And the other 50% should be to teach your child about empowering consent education and abuse prevention information (strategically).

But where I find most parents miss the boat, in the 50% of teaching their kids, is that they don't equip them with the HOW to exit an unsafe situation and how to report/disclose what happened.

Rates of reporting are very low for this reason and it perpetuates the cycle of abuse that a child may be going through. This is why teaching kids ex...

Guest Kimberly King (of @Kimberly King Books) joins me today to talk about how using her book can help kids learn exit strategies.

Kimberly's Course: https://www.kimberlykingbooks.com/proactive-parenting-school

Learn more about the book: https://isaidno.info/

Get your hands on my free PDF for all the books I recommend: https://aboutconsent.lpages.co/abuse-prevention-library-pdf/