The number one thing predators don’t want is to get caught. This is their biggest fear. Below is a list of things your child can do to repel predators. Predators are likely to be put off when your child: Walks confidently and with purpose. Taking up as much space as possible, holding her chin up, …
How Predators Groom Their Victims
Grooming is the main way predators manipulate their targets to gain their trust and then take advantage of them. Predators are pros at quickly assessing the strengths and weaknesses of their chosen targets and deciding which tactics will be the most effective for each child. According to Steve Kovacs, author of Protect Your Kids! The …
Who Are These People?
If you’re going to protect your chipmunk from “predators,” it’s important to know who they are. Some people like to comfort themselves by believing that predators are complete monsters who lurk in the shadows, but in reality, they look like ordinary people and come from all walks of life. They’re shared ride drivers, they’re teachers, …
The Benefits of Raising a Little Baby Badass
Throughout your darling’s childhood, he’s going to encounter tons of people, most of whom you both know fairly well—at daycare and pre-school, on play dates, at events, in your own home—and any one of them could be a predator. I don’t care how alert you think you are; you can’t keep him in your sight …
A Word about Worry
I’m going to stop for a minute to talk about worry and how to release it because, frankly, it’s freaking you and your child out and it’s not making him any safer. While it’s important to be informed about the dangers your child faces, such knowledge is destructive when it spirals into worry and obsession …
Parenting in the 21st Century
Your world (today) isn’t even remotely close to the world I lived in when I was parenting back in the 80s and 90s. I’m not saying there weren’t school shootings and bullies to deal with, but it wasn’t, like, IN YOUR FACE EVERY SINGLE SECOND OF THE DAY, NO MATTER WHERE YOU LOOKED! AAAAAHHHHHH! I …
The World is Safer Today than When You Were a Kid—Yes, Really!
Nearly 90 percent of adults say they feel less safe than when they were growing up, even though today’s crime rates are at a level not seen since the early 1960s! So, if crime rates in the US and the world in general have gone down so dramatically, why do we remain convinced that our …
The Awful, Horrible, Maybe Not Quite as Terrifying as You Thought Facts
When writing my book, Badass Parenting, I struggled mightily with how to present the facts about childhood danger without scaring you so badly that you’d put the book down and never touch it again. It’s hard to discuss subjects as harrowing as sexual abuse, bullying, and abduction without dragging you and your child into a …
Surviving Turkey Day: How to Rise Above the Family Drama & Enjoy a Peaceful Thanksgiving
People are making themselves literally sick over politics and current events, with folks from all sides spewing toxic emotional content and blaming each other. This is hard enough to deal with on an average day, but at Thanksgiving, a time to feel grateful for all the bounty in our lives, it can be especially distressing …
How to Create World Peace
World peace begins with inner peace. Your greatest impact on others and the world will only come when you have looked deeply inside and made peace with what you find there. But what if what you find makes you squirm? What if you hate what you find? The answer is love; it is always love. …