To prevent a predator- November 17, 2011

I’ve been shaking my head in disgust at the news out of Penn State. Greyson and I have followed the story almost daily since the story broke. As sports fans we’re exasperated. As parents we’re frightened.

If anything good is to come out of this awful situation, it has to be parents around our nation shouting this….

“Hey perverts! You’re not going to prey on our children anymore! The era of secrecy around child sex abuse is over! We’re going to do everything we can to protect and empower our kids!”

Greyson said, “It just goes to show we can’t trust anyone blindly with our child.” No, we can’t. But, we also can’t assume every teacher-soccer coach-violin instructor-scout leader-camp counselor who works with youth is a predator. But, I believe there is something we can do.

Parenting.com had this article with some excellent ideas on this from experts. Tracie is an amazing blogger, child sex abuse survivor, and total inspiration. Both the Parenting experts and Tracie have shared good ideas about prevention.

There are things even parents of young children can do. Advice that sticks out to me is something I’ve said from the beginning. Call your body parts what they are. In our house we will use the words “vagina”, “breasts”, and “penis.” From the start. (Read the Parenting article with more on why.) Tracie said it best in this one post when she said, “I wouldn’t send my daughter out into the world telling her that her nose was a ‘hoo hah’. Why would I tell her that’s what her vagina is called?”

So we’ll start there. I figure that’s the first step to arming my kid against creepy dudes like Jerry Sandusky. Allegedly.