Tag Archives: child safety

Alternatives to Smacking.

This is a sister article to: To Smack or Not to Smack? What is the Answer? Click here to read it. If smacking another adult is assault, it may be beneficial to train our children early not to smack people. Smacking is a behavior that belongs with the tactics of power and control associated with the Cycle of Violence. To break this cycle, we need to find alternatives to physical punishment when all we really want to do is lash out at our children. Children never deserve physical violence and learn nothing positive from such action. If we model alternatives … Continue reading →

To Smack or Not to Smack? What is the Answer?

I was recently asked to be a radio talk back guest on smacking children. The young female presenter gave the following scenario: A young mother, on her way home from work and after picking up here 3-year-old daughter from day care, stopped to choose a DVD. While cruising around the isles attempting to choose her only entertainment for the week, her young daughter starts pulling videos off shelves and throwing them at her mother. The mother smacked the child, one hard swift smack on the bottom, paid for the DVD in her hand and left. The young video store attendant … Continue reading →

Thera Pea Dolls: At home Protective Play That Won’t Break the Bank.

Thera Pea Dolls are a tool I use to teach Protective Behaviors. In my role as a child therapist and Protective Behavior consultant, I am always on the look out for different ideas to present as teaching utensils for parents to use with their own children if they want to. I like to suggest protective play resources that are either free or take little expense to make. One of the favored resources I use is Thera Pea Dolls. The dolls are simply a stuffed body outline that can be written on, or drawn upon, for numerous at home psycho-educational purposes. … Continue reading →

Are You Crazy? Take a Fun, Free Test to Find Out for Sure.

Are you concerned about your mental health? Perhaps you just worry that, because you’re at home minding children, you’re missing out on something better. Take a free test from Queendom.com to find out just how concerned you need to be. To take any of a multitude of tests on personality, anxiety, health, love, need for therapy, stress, etc, you just need to join Queendom.com for FREE. The tests are scored on line and you receive an almost instant analysis of your current state of emotional health. Although the tests have a high rate of validity, the just-for-fun tests DO NOT … Continue reading →

The Affirming Value of a Child’s Teddy – Voices from Survivors of Sexual Abuse

Teddy bears have long been the comfort of children everywhere. In an effort to reclaim the comfort of my lounge room I have this morning been packing up hundreds of teddies left over from the 2006 Cairns Teddy Tour-A-Thon to donate to children’s charities. As the Teddies beady little eyes pleaded with me not to suffocate them with my large black plastic bags, my conscience did a real Megan act and stood up against the emotionally flat and repetitious packing actions of my hands. Determined to stay strong in my task, I shut my ears and heart to the silent … Continue reading →

Do You Get Angry with Your Child? I Do, Because Anger is a Natural Feeling.

Related articles: Emotional Intelligence and Clear Communication; Dealing with a Passive Aggressive-Manipulator; The Cycle of Violence: Part 7, Stand Over. Anger is natural and normal. Just like any other emotion, we have the innate ability to feel angry and the right to let others know what we are feeling. However, often the behaviors that we display when we are angry are the problem. The behaviors we display are not our emotion – they are our behaviors Just as children get angry and throw a tantrum, so too do us parents. These tantrums are unacceptable and let other big people know … Continue reading →

FREE Posters to Help the Transition from Boy Child to Real Man.

To get FREE posters and brochures from the Coaching Boys into Men campaign, click here. While doing some research for another “End Violence” project I’m working on, I stumbled across an American website with FREE and immediately downloadable posters. The website of the Family Violence Prevention Fund is concerned with ending men’s violence against women and children. Bravo to them. They have recognized that violence is not a women’s issue, that it is a whole of community concern and that if men are part of the problem then they are also part of the solution. While the women’s movement was … Continue reading →

Stranger Danger versus Relation Sensation

While watching Lemony Snicket’s “A series of Unfortunate Events” for the 500th time since its release onto DVD, I was reminded to take the NAPCAN Child Friendly Challenge. I asked the two Master 10 year-olds what they would require in a child friendly community. Their answers: 1. “friendly people who don’t ask weird questions to find out about you”, 2. “No strangers”. Their answers puzzled me. One child is my son and the other, a son of my colleague. Both children are well versed in protective behaviors with their parents being sexual assault therapists. What are we doing wrong if … Continue reading →

Advocating for the Rights and Needs of Children and Young People.

Advocacy is speaking up for someone, something, or fighting for a cause. It is a process of negotiation to assist in having rights and needs met. Advocacy can take many different forms. There’s individual advocacy, citizen advocacy, systems advocacy, parent advocacy, self-advocacy and cause advocacy. Every time you stick up for a child or relay information about what has happened for a child, you are advocating for that child’s rights. Every time you make a suggestion for improving playground access for a child with a disability, you are advocating for the rights of people with a disability. Every time you … Continue reading →

Make a difference in another child’s life: Actively listen to them.

The reason we have two ears and one mouth is because it is twice as hard to listen as it is to talk. Active listening means using both of our ears, all of our senses and all of our knowledge about a person’s circumstance (age, ability, culture, etc). Children aren’t as sophisticated in their language as we are so we also have to listen actively to their behaviour as well as what they do/don’t say. Just as play is children’s work, so too is behavior a punctuation of children’s speech. Children will often tell us something through their behavior and … Continue reading →