Episode 223: Protecting Our Kids in This Wild World | with Julia Sadusky

If you’re a parent or mentor of young kids right now like we are, I am pretty sure you could marinate in fear every day of the week. 

Add the fact that it is up to us parents and mentors to teach these kids facts and wisdom about sexuality and body safety, and you can just find us in a panic attack on the floor every-other day of the week.

But what if we didn’t have to? What if we could learn how to wisely lead them in the midst of this wild world?

Today, psychologist and author Julia Sadusky helps us to do just that. Together we discuss:

• Why is avoiding conversations about bodies and sex lead to a lack of safety for our kids?

• What is the difference between sharing sexualized content with kids and talking about sexuality with kids?

• How do we non-anxiously but wisely engage body-exploration that kids naturally do?

• What are family rules and why might I consider having them? 

• What if we already feel like we failed as parents and mentors of young kids? How can we recover missed years?

| Highlights |

• “What is beautiful about parenthood is you get to be this imperfect representation to the world and to your kids of what we do when we fall short of the glory of God.” —Julia Sadusky
• “You will either be the first to have the sexuality conversations or the last.” —Julia Sadusky
• “What we know from know from research on childhood sexual abuse that the number one thing that protects children and makes it less likely for them to experience sexual abuse in childhood is for them to know the accurate terminology of their private parts. When I learned that it blew my mind and it made me think to myself: If we could get all Christians on the same page that we are going to do this, sexual abuse in childhood in our generations can go down markedly.” —Julia Sadusky
• “Young people are naturally curious about everything… We want to scaffold and support that learning. But without guidance from the primary people in their corner, young people will go elsewhere.” —Julia Sadusky

| QOTW |

Are you an ice or no-ice person? And what shape does it need to take? (Square, round, or perhaps Death Star shaped??)

| Do the Next Thing |

• Julia’s book, Start Talking to Your Kids About Sex 
• Julia’s IG: instagram.com/drjuliasadusky
• Julia’s site: juliasadusky.com
• Join the HIMH FB group here
• Follow Laurie (where she is talking about things like this often) here: instagram.com/laurie_krieg
• Email us your questions here
• Watch the episode here