Lin – I’m really looking forward to your next post. I hope you are able to reach parents and to help them appreciate that it is not easy to recognise sexual assault. Predators are very clever and work hard to groom, isolate and reduce visibility. Predators groom everyone around the child and introduce doubt and disbelief. There are few parents who have recognised sexual abuse but many parents who too quickly fall into “mother blame” by pointing an accusatory finger and screaming that the parent must have known. The only people responsible for sexual assault are the perpetrators.

PG – I wrote a creative short story once on scrambled egg brains. I read it to all participants at protective play parties that I used to run. Parents really seemed to get it. One of the reasons I love your work so much is because you speak in parent terms. To reach parents and assist them, we have to be able to speak their language, not jargon heavy professional language. Thank you PQ for taking the time to include child safety issues in your daily blogs.

PQ.

I have so much respect for the work you do on these important issues. The information you provide parents is so helpful, and I’m happy to be able to provide similar information about child sexual abuse and the things parents need to know.

My next post will deal with child sexual abuse, and will explain why I am so adamant about bringing this information to parents, since so many continue to have the views that it’s easy to identify signs of sexual abuse in children and it just isn’t.