When you have kids, you’ll do anything you can to keep them safe. However, you can’t stay right next to your children every minute of every day. At some point, you have to trust in the skills and principles that you’ve been able to teach them.
As a part of this, it’s crucial that you’re able to teach your children about their bodies and how they should allow other people to treat them. With people in the world who look to exploit and take advantage of those weaker than they are, there’s no more important work than protecting your children in this way.
To help you with this, here are three things you should teach your kids about protecting and respecting their bodies.
Teach Which Body Parts Are Private
As your children grow into toddlers, it’s important that you identify their body parts correctly, including those that are considered private.
According to AhaParenting.com, you should teach your children that any body part that’s covered by a bathing suit is a private part for them. When something is private, it means that they don’t allow anyone to see or touch this part of their body, unless it’s their parent or a doctor who’s helping them. Not only that, but they also shouldn’t look at or touch those parts of anyone else’s body either.
Don’t Keep Secrets About Their Body Or Others’ Bodies
While you should teach your children that certain parts of their body should remain private, you should reiterate that this doesn’t mean that they should ever keep secrets about bodies.
Natasha Daniels, a contributor to the Child Mind Institute, shares that many people who abuse children will tell them to keep any touching or viewing a secret. To combat this, share with your child that they should never keep any secrets about someone touching their private parts or someone asking them to touch their private parts.
Additionally, let your child know that they’ll never get in trouble for sharing any information with you about their body or someone else’s body as it relates to them.
Empower Your Child To Have Control Over Their Own Body
For many children, they’re taught to listen to and obey people in authority when they’re speaking to them. However, this attitude of compliance could be dangerous if your child gets into an abusive situation.
Because of this possibility, it’s important that you empower your child to have control over their own body and enforce any decisions they make. According to FamilyEducation.com, this extends to showing physical affection to family members or friends. If your child expresses that they don’t want to give Grandma a hug or kiss, that decision needs to be respected now so they can grow in confidence if they ever find themselves in a more threatening situation.
To help your children stay safe in this scary world, consider using the tips mentioned above to show your kids how to protect and respect their own bodies.