The world is becoming a riskier place for our kids day by day. Child sexual abuse and mental torture are on a new rise these days. Especially after the Ryan Internation School case where a little kid was killed by a bus conductor, it is very important that parents tighten their safety measure and start taking precautions already. According to Dr Kamna Chibber, clinical psychologist, Fortis healthcare, here are a few tips that will help you groom your kids against unforeseen threats:
Talk to your child: Make time to listen to your kids and pay attention to everything they say. This will comfort your kids and you might come to know things that could potentially be harmful to them.
Encourage them to tell you everything: There are things that kids tend to hide from the parents. Create an environment of transparency that has a perfect balance of friendly behaviour and discipline. They shouldn’t be scared to tell you anything.
Tell them the difference between the appropriate and the inappropriate: Teach them about good and bad touch. Explain to them their boundaries and how close should a person come to them. Also, tell them how to react if they experience something that is making them uncomfortable or uneasy.
Your response plays a very important role. If they share some problem of incidents with you, your reaction should be relaxed and comforting. Angry or an alarmed reaction will scare him and he’ll not share with you anything the second time anything wrong happens.
Keep your eyes open and let them know that even an insider, a trustworthy family member could be a threat. Groom your child to not even let a trustworthy member touch them in a bad way or do anything that can make them feel uneasy.
Don’t always use direct communication while explaining to them about their safety, use metaphors and incidents that are happening around to explain to them what is wrong and help them inculcate the right perspective. For example, if there is a news in the media that involves child sexual abuse talk about it to your children, avoiding those incidents won’t help.
Published: October 20, 2017 1:24 pm
