Child Protection Week is an opportunity for community to reflect on their protection practices and to celebrate kids being kids. This week, Australian communities are celebrating their children, their commitments to keeping children safe, and our active involvement with families who are struggling.
This morning’s launch encouraged people to consult with children to find out what they want to help keep them safe. Have a look at the NAPCAN site to see what some Australian children have already said. It’s interesting that the responses lack items like play stations or expensive trips away. Australian children are identifying love, peace and home safety as issues of need.
A host of young Australian Aboriginal entertainers (pictured), who publicly acted their craving for safe opportunities to perform their culture, reinforced the National Child Protection Week catch cry: “Young visions for a child friendly Australia”. The children’s corroboree provided a spectacular difference between cultural Australia and a modern Australia personified by Aboriginal poverty, abuse and neglect. The difference was emotionally moving. It has motivated me to continue striving for my ultimate vision of child protection and child value.
A guest speaker at breakfast, I encouraged people to do things differently. What we are already doing is clearly not working to protect our children. In Australia, a child is abused every 13 minutes. The area I live in has the highest rates of child sexual abuse Australia wide. Shame on us.
Over breakfast, I talked around the BITSS model of Protective Behaviors and challenged every person present to begin playing protectively today: to pick just one game from any of the BITSS suggestions and to play it with children. Protective play can keep our kids safe. It’s up to us as adults to start it though. Play is children’s work. Keeping them safe is ours.
I also told a story of difference, accidentally discovered by a desperate need to reinforce family life. The story is my truth. In the interest of difference, I share it with you now:
Many years ago, my husband walked out on us. It was unexpected and we were devastated. Unable to work my business because of my sorrow and confusion, my professional and family life was in tatters. We moved town so that I could be closer to my family supports and so that I could take a job with the Government. I hated my job and the kids hated moving. They yearned for yesterday. They yearned for things familiar and the old family rituals that they loved. Desperate to instill new rituals, things that would symbolize that we were still a family, I asked the kids what they would like to start doing to make us a family of difference. Breakfast by candle light was the popular vote and it became our daily blessing. Breakfast was the only time we had to talk together, be together, and cry together. The candles drew us like moths. Sometimes there would be no talk, just blank faces staring into the flame while we each reeled from our different shocks of our new life. We still often have breakfast by candle light and we love it. It is our thing to do, our symbol of family hope, safety and forward movement. My youngest child now lights candles when he wants to talk to me about something difficult. The ritual has become a symbol of talk safety for him.
Ask your child what they need to have change for a child safe community. Respect what they say and do at least one different thing nominated by your child. If every families.com parent did this, and then posted the wisdom back here, we would be contributing toward young visions for a child friendly world.