Parents face lots of challenges, and some of the biggest are around sex and sexuality. Two of the big challenges that face parents today are protecting children from sexual abuse and preparing children to grow into adults who have a healthy understanding of sex and relationships.
The former is a big and important challenge, and one that Christians and churches often don’t think about enough. Childhood sexual abuse is heartbreakingly common, more so than many might imagine.1 Perpetrators are usually known to the victims which suggests that we are often not good at isolating those who might be a risk to children. While churches rightly have safeguarding policies and procedures in place that seek to protect children, parents are not always aware of the steps they can take to protect their children.
Preparing children to grow into adults who have a healthy understanding of sex and relationships is also a challenge for parents. There are lots of reasons this is tricky. Many of us feel uncomfortable talking about sex in general and our approach is likely to be shaped by our own experiences of talking about sex throughout life. Parents also face the challenge of finding the balance between talking to their children in developmentally appropriate ways and helping children navigate a sex-saturated society where they might often be exposed to information parents would otherwise feel they are not ready for.
Julia shares lots of really great wisdom to help parents.
Both of these challenges are addressed brilliantly in a recent episode of the Theology in the Raw podcast in which Preston Sprinkle interviews Julia Sadusky, author of the recently published book Start Talking to Your Kids about Sex (read our review here).
Julia shares lots of really great wisdom to help parents with both of these challenges. She and Preston talk about some of the steps that parents can take to protect children from sexual abuse and how parents can look to have good conversations with their children in developmentally appropriate ways. During the episode, Preston and Julia talk through different age groups and how parents might engage at those different points. The podcast format is great for this as it allows Julia to give lots of examples of the kind of things that might be good for parents to say.
If you’re a parent, take some time to listen to this podcast episode and think about how you can apply some of the wisdom it contains. If, like me, you’re not a parent, recommend it to your friends who are and take a listen yourself – we too have a role to play in protecting children and supporting those who parent them.
You can listen to the episode below or find it wherever you like to get your podcasts (e.g. Spotify or Apple Podcasts).
- See, for example, ‘Child Sexual Abuse in England and Wales: Year Ending March 2019’, Office for National Statistics.
