Hi friends + family, how are you guy’s today? Today’s blog isn’t a fun recipe or colorful craft today’s blog is something more serious. Something in which every parent needs to talk to their kids about but may not know how. Today’s blog is all about how to teach your kids about safe touching. With summer in full force and kids off to the pools, summer camps, visiting family and more. There is no better time to have this conversation with your child.
The idea of safe touching.
The idea of having to speak to your kids about something like this is incredibly scary and uncomfortable. We don’t want to give our kids the idea that something like this may happen and scare them. But we also need to have these uncomfortable conversations with them in order to teach them these things at a young age. Many parents don’t know you can start teaching them as early as 2 years old. We taught the girls when they were toddlers what safe touching was and we make sure to continue to reiterate that as they get older.
My god mother who works in the hospital and unfortunately sees this all the time with kids came across this post (see below) on Facebook from a woman named Carianne Garner. She created this little person with traffic lights to teach kids about safe touching. I thought it was very neat and decided to recreate one to share with you all today. It’s very simple to make and is a great tool for learning about safe touching.
How can I teach my child about safe touching?
There are so many ways to teach kids about safe touching here are a few below.
1. Create the safe touching little person chart and have your child help you as you label out everything on the chart.
2. Use words that are appropriate for your child’s age. Our kids are older so we use the correct terms (penis, vagina etc.) when they were smaller their grandma use to use terms like “your butterfly”.
3. Use a stuffed animal or a swim suit to show them safe and unsafe places for touching.
4. Teach them about the difference between good touching and bad touching and why keeping secrets are not okay when it comes to this topic.
5. Make them feel safe while talking about this subject. Don’t shy away from any questions they may have and always keep a correct tone.
You got this!
Safe touching is important to learn. The sooner and more knowledge they are the better. Keep your kids safe this summer and for life by having this conversation with them. If you have any tips please feel free to share them below. Oh and hey! You got this.
