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Recently, I was chatting with “Chad” – a normally light-hearted friend of mine who is a new father. Cuddling his baby daughter protectively, in a worried voice Chad asked, “I hear about so many terrible things happening to kids from their teachers, family friends, priests… people we’re supposed to be able to trust. Who can I trust? What can I do to keep my baby safe?”
Every year, Kidpower teaches workshops and provides educational resources for tens of thousands of worried parents and other caring adults who urgently want to know the answers. Our newest book, Doing Right by Our Kids: Protecting Child Safety at All Levels, was written to help address these compelling questions.
In honor of September being International Child Protection Month, we are sharing some valuable lessons from this book.
Any time we leave someone alone with our child, it’s a high-stakes situation until that child is capable enough to recognize a safety problem, set boundaries, and get help. In the chapter, Creating Safety Within the Inner Circle: Family, Friends, Neighbors, Babysitters, we explore how to recognize and prevent trouble with people in this Inner Circle around our children and teens.
When behavior goes against our safety rules, we need to be prepared to restrict, deny, or revoke a person’s access to our kids.
Here are 5 behaviors that should instantly raise red flags for you.
1. Anyone who disregards your safety rules or tries to make you feel wrong for having concerns.
2. Any adult who wants to be your child’s friend but not your friend.
3. A situation that seems too good to be true – because it often is.
4. Someone who continually asks that you trust them.
5. Someone who makes unsolicited promises.
Learn more, enjoy a Special Offer, and help Kidpower!
You can learn more about how to help protect your children, and what actions you can take from Doing Right by Our Kids – while also supporting Kidpower.
On September 26th, we invite you, your friends, and colleagues to purchase a copy of Doing Right by Our Kids to help us achieve Amazon best-seller status, which will enable this book to reach more people and help them learn how to protect children. If you email us a copy of your receipt for a purchase made on September 26th, we will send you a FREE bonus package valued at $375 that will include:
- A cartoon-illustrated Boundaries toolkit showing the essentials of teaching how to set healthy and appropriate boundaries with people you know.
- A chapter on Internet Safety by expert Linda Criddle from Courageous Parents, Confident Kids. This chapter provides essential tools and tactics to protect children from internet predators.
- Our Kidpower Tools to Live By graphic which features a quick reference summary of the skills we teach.
- An opportunity for a FREE expert email consultation on a safety concern with Dr. Amy Tiemann or myself, where we share our decades of practical expertise (a $300 value!).
Published: September 19, 2018 | Last Updated: September 19, 2018
Irene van der Zande, Kidpower Founder and Executive Director
Kidpower Founder and Executive Irene van der Zande is a master at teaching safety through stories and practices and at inspiring others to do the same. Her child protection and personal safety expertise has been featured by USA Today, CNN, Today Moms, the LA Times, and The Wall Street Journal. Publications include: cartoon-illustrated Kidpower Safety Comics and Kidpower Teaching Books curriculum; Bullying: What Adults Need to Know and Do to Keep Kids Safe; the Relationship Safety Skills Handbook for Teens and Adults; Earliest Teachable Moment: Personal Safety for Babies, Toddlers, and Preschoolers; The Kidpower Book for Caring Adults: Personal Safety, Self-Protection, Confidence, and Advocacy for Young People, and the Amazon Best Seller Doing Right by Our Kids: Protecting Child Safety at All Levels.
