The Fathering Project

Quality Time

Last week was Child Protection Week. Keeping our children safe as they grow and teaching them how to keep themselves, and others around them, safe is a life skill that is imperative.

It’s essential to recognise the crucial role we play in nurturing our children's understanding of boundaries and consent. Just like boundaries on a sports field or court, boundaries in healthy relationships are the lines we set to define how we want to be treated and how we treat others.

We've all heard the golden rule: "Treat others how you would like to be treated." This is a fundamental example of setting boundaries. In a relationship, boundaries may take the form of telling someone that a certain behaviour is not acceptable. It might sound like, "You're being too rough," or "I don't like it when you shout at me like that."

As Dads, we have the opportunity to guide our children in establishing their own boundaries and become positive role models by demonstrating how we respect their boundaries.

By helping our children firmly establish what is acceptable to them early on, we empower them to do the same in the future, especially when they get to an age where we might not be there with them.

Top Tips

1. Talk to your child about personal space and body boundaries. What is okay and what is not.

2. Teach them to trust their feelings. If it doesn't feel right to them, they should say "no" or "stop" and tell you about it as soon as they can.

3. Respect. Teach your child to also respect the boundaries that others set. 

Dad Joke of the Week!​​​​​​​

"I have a Polish friend who is a sound technician. And a Czech one too."​​​​​​​​​​​