This is a great example of an article that has all the right intentions but doesn’t really help. I have found countless examples like this, articles, blogs etc saying you need to talk to your young girls about this stuff etc but with no real-world-what-should-I-say?-help. Yes we have established that within an early years framework you can talk about consent in the terms of ‘you don’t have to hug that person if you don’t want to’, no means no, people have physical personal space etc etc That’s all great and appropriate for that age. You have to lay those foundations from the start for sure, but as soon as you hit around 8 or so years of age there is tumble weed on how to really have those important conversations until they are in their early teens.
What’s interesting too is that I feel there are examples of this happening in other areas, psychologists, play specialists, growth mindset advocates etc are starting to give us examples of literal phrases and words we can use to change our language for the better when communicating with our kids and this is the most helpful advice within that context for sure.
I am wondering how we transplant this to those more difficult conversations.