The Helping Hand

**Caution**

This is about a sensitive topic—preventing child molestation and sexual abuse.

I discovered this on a blog— here is the link for anyone interested in reading more about what this mother faced: http://momsworstnightmare.blogspot.com

I want everyone to know—

Our family is using this strategy with all of our children.

How can we attempt to prevent sexual abuse of children. Read on.... Convicted abusers were surveyed, and they by and large said this approach WOULD have prevented them from abusing the children they abused.


Sit down as a family. Have the child draw the outline of their hand on a piece of paper. Then, on each finger write the name of one trusted adult. Let them choose the people, with a bit of guidance from parents/guardians. This the their own personal "Helping Hand." Put a phone number with each name, if the child is old enough to know how to make a phone call.


Tell the child that if anything happens that breaks the "Nobody is allowed..." rule (see earlier post), they should immediately tell TWO of the people on their helping hand. If nothing happens to stop the offenses, they should tell another and another until something happens.


Then, and THIS is the part that does the trick, tell EVERYONE you know that you have done this, and that you have a plan in place. Tell the 5 adults that they are on the child's helping hand.


Perpetrators say that if they had known that such a plan was in place for their victims, they would not have abused at least that victim.


You might ask: How could they possibly know that there is a plan in place?


Answer: Because YOU JUST TOLD THEM. You announced the plan to all your family and friends, etc. Again, and this is no lie, 90-95% of all sexual abuse of children comes from family or people with CLOSE family ties. Tell EVERYONE about the plan. Announce it. Decorate the helping hands and post them on the wall so people will ask you about them. It's so simple.