Has anyone watched the Leaving Neverland Documentary or the Oprah special that followed? Well, I did, and boy did it stir up all kinds of emotions for me. While I am a fan of the #metoo movement and the fact that adults are sharing their stories of sexual abuse and hopefully healing through that, I am disturbed for our children. We need to find a way to stop childhood sexual abuse by encouraging them to share their secrets.
In this episode I share my own story of sexual abuse and how it felt to keep the secret until I was 19. I was repeated molested from the time I was eight years old until the age of fifteen. I was terrified that if I shared the secret my family would fall apart, and I would get in immense trouble. Somehow, I felt it was my fault. Did you know that one in six boys are molested by the time they are 18 and one in four girls? Heartbreaking. The thing most of these cases have in common is that the children are told that they must keep the secret to protect everyone involved. Parents, be careful how you talk about secrets. It is important that your children learn from an early age that you are their advocate and every secret must to be told to the people they trust the most (their parents). This is such a tough subject to talk about, but we MUST.
If you, yourself were sexual abused, check out this article about adults dealing with childhood sexual abuse.
Thank you for listening.
Have a great week!
To follow my son, Joshua’s journey of fighting a rare Leukemia, check out his Caring Bridge site or FB group.
------
Have a great week!
Thanks for listening. If you have topics you would like for me to discuss or people you would like to hear from, let me know. Just email me at kathy@thehomegrownpreschooler.com or shoot me a message on social media.

Don’t forget to subscribe to my podcast and leave a review on iTunes!!! Also, to thank you for listening, you can receive a 10% discount on any purchase at The Homegrown Preschooler by using the code, THEREALKATHYLEE.
.

Thank you to The Homegrown Preschooler for sponsoring this Podcast! Check out the blog post Kathy mentioned, Farmhouse Schoolhouse, to read more about A Year of Playing Skillfully.

Also, to thank you for listening, you can receive a 10% discount on any purchase at
The Homegrown Preschooler by using the code, THEREALKATHYLEE.