This can lead to misleading beliefs such as 'there's a child molester on every corner of the street waiting to get at your kid'. No there isn't.
They're more likely to be in your own family or someone you know through the family.
I was unfortunately one of those children who were touched. I know the dangers - I lived it. So to me it is a very real situation that can happen to anyone.
That doesn't automatically mean that everyone should be paranoid about the wrong people however; but it doesn't hurt to instill in your children a sense of permission. People should not just be able to reach out and fondle your children in any fashion. It might be completely innnocent or it might not be.
A sexual preditor preys on innocent situations. They prey on the fact that people get carried away with not touching, and they set people up to believe they are paranoid about the dangers. So when their children react distantly towards the sexual preditor once they've touched them inappropriately; the preditor can then put it down to the child picking up the paranoia from the parents being over-protective, and continue the abuse under the parent's noses.
I'm only saying this because it's a reailty. As real as the pendulum swinging the other way to extreme paranoia. We could associate some of the extremity to the fields involved with psychology; however, we should not then use it as a reason to set our children up for abuse. Children do pick up on their parent's disposition without needing instruction.
If mum and dad believe and encourage that anyone can touch them, when they are touched they don't know who to tell or even that what the person did was wrong? It feels wrong but all they have is their parent's disposition to go by and they seem happy to encourage others to go into their personal space without permission.
We don't have to teach our children that there is a sexual preditor on every corner, but we can teach them about permission to touch.
I think men who are genuine about affection towards young children and are not sexual preditors - respect children's boundaries anyway because it is such a real danger today. They will only ever hold that child around the parents or other adults and will treat them with genuine affection rather than sexual interest.
I've known quite a few guys who act like this and the kids love them; and they love the innocent affection. I love seeing this kind of relationship develop too, because I've seen where it goes wrong and it's nice to know that affection can still be given to children without it becoming about total abstinance.
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Where in Australia are you located, by the way? I'm here in the tropics of Nth QLD ...Townsville.
Toowoomba, Queensland. A little colder than what you're used to I imagine.
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