Trust your gut. How many times have you heard this, know this and gone ahead an ignored it? Bad Mama! Bad Daddy!
Recently I did a talk for a group of preschool parents about “Playing Doctor” – natural and healthy sexual play, sexualized behavior and what to do when kids are engaging in this type of behavior.
One of my favorite parts of this talk is when I provide the group with different scenarios and ask them to determine if what’s described is “natural and healthy or cause for concern.”
At this point in my talk, the parents have learned the difference and have had a chance to ask me questions, talk to each other and take some of this sometimes unsettling information in.
The thing I find really interesting is how clearly their intuition helps them to decide if the different descriptions are healthy, or not. Now, I haven’t tested the waters here, but I think I could give the parents these descriptions before they have any information from me and they would know, based on their gut reactions, if the kids described need help.
We intuitively know when something isn’t right – and our kids do too. Help them learn how to develop and refine their intuition. Their intuition is much stronger and clearer than ours – ours has been socialized out of us in the interest of being polite.
Talk about it when you get that “uh-oh feeling”. Ask them about how they feel in their tummy about someone.
Kids who can name and acknowledge when they feel weird about someone are safer. They will naturally stay away from Uncle Creepy or that kid that just doesn’t seem right. And it’s our job to trust them when they say they don’t like someone or a situation. This is so they can learn to trust themselves and make healthy relationship decisions down the line
