Something we hear time and time again (especially from parents of toddlers) are comments and questions such as, "I love that my child is empowered to say NO and that they understand they have a body boundary. But now they are saying NO to everything! How do I get them to hold my hand to cross the street or let me help them with potty training or put their seatbelt on?"
We understand, we really do. As parents and carers, we want our children to be happy, however, keeping them safe is paramount.
Author, educator, advocate, and mother of three, Jayneen Sanders has written a short script for parents and carers to use as a guide in those challenging situations when children resist our requests - see below. We hope it helps!
Scenario: Child and parent/carer are crossing the road.
Child says: 'No! I don't want to hold your hand.'
Parent/carer says: 'I understand you don't want to hold my hand right now. But remember I am your "safe person". My job is to keep YOU safe. And right now, we are crossing this street, and to help me do MY job which is to keep you safe, you need to hold my hand."
Use this script with other safety scenarios. For example, placing your child in a carseat.
Here is a list of our books on teaching kids about body safety and consent:
