Link – Going Beyond Body Safety – Why Parenting Matters In Protecting Children From Sexual Abuse

“Even so, ‘body safety’ as a set of rules that apply to body autonomy and private parts are only one part of the necessary education and nurturing of children. There is also an essential emotional component that cannot be ‘learned’ it must be nurtured between the child and a caring adult – preferably a parent.

For those parents out there that truly want to do everything in their power to protect their children, here are three tips to best protect and empower your children beyond rocking the body safety talk. “

I’ve said it before, nothing makes a child less likely to be groomed and abused that having a strong sense of self and connection to his parents. Those kinds of kids are much more likely to tell, and harder to manipulate, and there is a much larger risk in targeting them.

That only comes from their home life though. There is no curriculum that will help them develop those things. I like that this article addresses that, but also that it addresses something that may be harder for us to accept, how to raise children who don’t commit sexual abuse against other children.

We don’t like to talk much about that, but I know quite a few survivors who were not groomed and sexually abused by adults in the way we typically think about sexual abuse, but were abused by older children. Myself included. How different could things be if all of those children were being raised with a proper sense of self, and their place in the larger community?

Parenting matters. It doesn’t have to be perfect parenting, but kids who know they are cared for, respected, and accepted, are less likely to keep secrets, and secrets are where abusers live.

http://themamabeareffect.org/blog/going-beyond-body-safety-why-parenting-matters-in-protecting-children-from-sexual-abuse