How To Keep Our Children Safe
This is an open letter to my friends and family.
I feel like I'm the bad guy. The antogonist in a movie. The strict teacher with the bar.
Really, but I do this because I feel it is important. I want you to understand if I ask you the following:
Don't ask my child to sit on your lap or kiss you. No! Basta!
It makes me feel uncomfortable.
WHY THE DRAMA
Last week, a six-year-old girl was in a restaurant in Pretoria, South Africa apparently raped by a stranger. It was sad and terribly affected.
This week: A ten-year-old girl (I think I heard ten years old) was missing somewhere in Johannesburg after his shop was closed on a Wednesday and Friday her body was found somewhere dead. It's so sad.
I think of their families. I think of every family who had to go through something like this.
Some of the children who overcome the stuff do not know their offender and then there are some offenders who are relatives or friends.
Recently I read on Twitter people's stories on the hashtag #WhyIDidntReportIt. Several people have said on the relevant hashtag that the offender of the sexual violence on them was actually someone they know.
It's so painful. They did not want to lay the charge against the perpetrator, just because their family knew the offender.
HOW TO MAINTAIN NOW
Now I have to ask myself: How will I inform my child that she should tell me as soon as she is hurt by someone she knows? How will I inform her to protect herself from a possible offender, whether he or she is a stranger, whether he or she is a familiar to us?
Should I teach her not to trust people?
For example, my blogger colleague, Shaveh Feder, gave 12 tips on how to protect your child on her blog. One of the tips is that everyone in the car gets out the same time (when the adult is ready) and they have to get the same side of the car where the adult (parent) gets out.
DO NOT ALL EVEN EVIL
For example, when I went to Bay, I put my life in a stranger's hands. Oom Charles, my former colleague, arranged for me to stay in the Bay at a friendly person. He also promised my parents that he would look after me and over the years I lived there, he looked at me.
Although salt-of-the-earth people exist like him, we still lose our confidence in people as we hear daily horrible stories on social media and the traditional media. I have to keep on playing helicopter mom (someone who always has her eyes on her child).
I still have to say to people (though I feel confident how they are): rather don't kiss my child on her mouth; or I don't want my child to sit on your lap.
So my letter to you asks the following: understand what I come from. Understand, though, I sound like a bath guy or the party pooper, I try to protect my innocent child.
And it makes me very uncomfortable when my child is sitting on your lap and if you want to start kissing her. Understand Canal!
I feel like I'm the bad guy. The antogonist in a movie. The strict teacher with the bar.
Really, but I do this because I feel it is important. I want you to understand if I ask you the following:
Don't ask my child to sit on your lap or kiss you. No! Basta!
It makes me feel uncomfortable.
WHY THE DRAMA
Last week, a six-year-old girl was in a restaurant in Pretoria, South Africa apparently raped by a stranger. It was sad and terribly affected.
This week: A ten-year-old girl (I think I heard ten years old) was missing somewhere in Johannesburg after his shop was closed on a Wednesday and Friday her body was found somewhere dead. It's so sad.
I think of their families. I think of every family who had to go through something like this.
Some of the children who overcome the stuff do not know their offender and then there are some offenders who are relatives or friends.
Recently I read on Twitter people's stories on the hashtag #WhyIDidntReportIt. Several people have said on the relevant hashtag that the offender of the sexual violence on them was actually someone they know.
It's so painful. They did not want to lay the charge against the perpetrator, just because their family knew the offender.
HOW TO MAINTAIN NOW
Now I have to ask myself: How will I inform my child that she should tell me as soon as she is hurt by someone she knows? How will I inform her to protect herself from a possible offender, whether he or she is a stranger, whether he or she is a familiar to us?
Should I teach her not to trust people?
For example, my blogger colleague, Shaveh Feder, gave 12 tips on how to protect your child on her blog. One of the tips is that everyone in the car gets out the same time (when the adult is ready) and they have to get the same side of the car where the adult (parent) gets out.
DO NOT ALL EVEN EVIL
For example, when I went to Bay, I put my life in a stranger's hands. Oom Charles, my former colleague, arranged for me to stay in the Bay at a friendly person. He also promised my parents that he would look after me and over the years I lived there, he looked at me.
Although salt-of-the-earth people exist like him, we still lose our confidence in people as we hear daily horrible stories on social media and the traditional media. I have to keep on playing helicopter mom (someone who always has her eyes on her child).
I still have to say to people (though I feel confident how they are): rather don't kiss my child on her mouth; or I don't want my child to sit on your lap.
So my letter to you asks the following: understand what I come from. Understand, though, I sound like a bath guy or the party pooper, I try to protect my innocent child.
And it makes me very uncomfortable when my child is sitting on your lap and if you want to start kissing her. Understand Canal!
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