Episode 26: Amy Williams: Why Teaching Your Child What ‘Consent’ Means Is So Important!

My guest today is Amy Williams and she will be sharing with us Why Teaching Your Child What ‘Consent’ Means Is So Important!

Amy Williams helps teachers and families in stressful situations with children. She has been a Trainer and Professional Coach for over 25 years with experience in education and development. She also has experience as a Dance Movement, and Expression Artist Therapist and Counselor. 

I love Amy’s quote on her website: “You know how when your classroom or your living room feels like a hurricane and you feel like you aren't going to make it through the day because what you really want to do you do is scream or cry or freeze?”

That sounds like a lot of mothers I know, for sure! 

In today’s episode, Amy is talking about children and consent. And consent can be a blurry word. 

So what is consent? To give consent is to give permission. So you are looking for a clear YES or a clear NO. You are listening for that or you are giving that. 

Amy shares that this starts as early as infancy!

This is something that needs to be done often and regularly throughout their childhood and as they get older. 

There are several benefits to practicing this with your child regularly. 

For one, it normalizes that you can have conversations about consent, it’s not taboo, and it also allows you to be able to say all the words that as an adult you might feel weird about saying! You’re saying these words regularly and using the correct names for body parts. It creates an atmosphere where your child can come to you and ask you questions about maybe things that would normally be uncomfortable. Maybe it’s something that happened at school or on the playground or something, they’re thinking about or feeling in their body.

As they grow into teenagers and turn to their peers, how great is it that we’ve started early and developed that relationship so that all of our children feel comfortable enough to come to us and feel comfortable saying whatever they need to say!

This is NEVER too late to start! 

After your child learns the different times and different ways they can give consent they need to know how they have to ask for consent as well.

We also talk about the difference between secrets and surprises. (This is really good!)

As you are teaching your children this be sure NOT to undermine them when they give consent. This can be during a silly pillow fight or when tickling. There are many examples Amy walks us through to better understand how we can teach our children this.

You can find out more about Amy by visiting her website here.

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julie hatch