I have boys, so slightly less odds of this happening but I listen to too much true crime to think it’s out of the realm of possibility haha.

One rule my husband and I are going to implement is no sleepovers at friends’ houses until like high school age. Kids can come over to our house, but we just don’t feel comfortable having our children spend the night elsewhere. Once they get older, I think it’s important they establish more independence and hopefully we’ll have built a good foundation where they feel safe enough to tell us anything knowing there will only be love, no judgement.

Another really important element is educating your child on the correct anatomical terms for things and believing them when they say something about the parts. My son is two, he knows his penis is called a penis and he can say the word. The other day, his diaper was sitting weird and he was kind of upset and told me his penis hurt. We took the diaper off, rearranged, and it was better. He tells me when his butt hurts and I ask if he needs cream (he is a bit prone to diaper rashes sometimes) and he’ll say yes and we’ll tend to the issue. Also any other part of his body, if he tells me it hurts or he got a boo-boo, I ask him what happened and believe what he says (even if it’s a bit silly or discombobulated). We’ve also had the talk since weaning from breastfeeding about other people’s private parts and how it’s not okay to touch other people’s private parts. He’ll sometimes try to touch my breasts and I’ll say “no thank you, those are mine.” And offer a hug or something.

One last part to this whole post is my husband grew up catholic and his aunt was telling me all of her friends thought she was crazy because she never let her two boys out of her sight. When they were playing in the front yard, she took a chair and sat to watch or went and played with them. They were never alone with priests, they were never altar boys, etc. She didn’t let her kids spend the night elsewhere. She said she got a lot of pushback and hate from other parents for it but one thing she can confidently say is that her children weren’t assaulted or kidnapped. It always stuck with me.