We must protect our children

ADULTS should be a source of support, safety and trust for children.
At the very least, they should do no harm.
When they are a source of shame, anxiety or stress, the risk to the child is too much to allow them to keep going.
They are many fatal and dangerous trends affecting raising children in our modern times: the absentee parents who spend all their time outside the home; the age of internet where children are not monitored on what they are watching; the adult world of child traffickers, adult videos and sexual abusers are all over the place.
It is now a concern for the courts and police on the number of cases involving sexual abuse of minors.
The numbers are increasing and it is because families and victims now know there is a judicial system in place to assist them and are coming out to report it because of the extensive awareness campaigns by concerned authorities.
The media has the responsibility to continue reporting on this issue to raise awareness and, hopefully, put a stop to it occurring to more children.
This issue should not be deemed as negative news, but, rather, a fight by all concerned to put a stop to these unaccepted practices.
Parents also have the responsibility to provide kids the opportunity to be resilient to difficult people, part of being resilient is knowing when to draw a bold heavy line between our self and another.
Most children will not always be able to say when something doesn’t feel right, particularly if it’s in response to an adult whose authority they’ve been taught to respect or whose intentions they’ve been taught to trust.
Kids need our permission and our guidance to be able to close down to people who scrape against them continuously.
In many instances, abuse on children were committed by people we trust, the ones that are close relatives or are known to the victim.
Judges and magistrates, the police and many others have been calling on parents to be careful who they leave their children with at home or at school. Parents cannot trust just anyone because of the exposure to changes that are taking place technology-wise for example.
When you leave your child for someone to look after or mind for you, the fact remains that you don’t know what people are doing behind your back with your child.
Raising children requires a lot of patience and a good environment to teach and interact: teaching cultural, spiritual, intellectual values and others.
As parents, we are told to support teachers, coaches and other adults in the lives of our children and this is true – to a point.
What’s more important is supporting our own children in drawing the line between what is acceptable and what isn’t when it comes to other people.
Sometimes, that means openly naming unacceptable behaviour.
You know your child and you will know when something is changing them – the way they are, the way they see themselves.
Trust yourself to know when something isn’t right.
We cannot stop toxic people coming into the lives of our children.
What we can do though, is give our kids independence of mind and permission to recognise that person and their behaviour as wrong.
We can teach our children that being kind and respectful doesn’t necessarily mean accepting someone’s behaviour, beliefs or influence.
The kindness and respect we teach our children to show to adults should never be used against them by those broken adults who might do harm.
Let’s do whatever we have to keep them that way.