This Makes A Very Good Point About Kids And Consent And Sparked A Really Important Debate

Nov 15, 2018 by apost team

Have you ever told your little one to give someone a hug? That's the way we were all raised, right? Respect your elders and don't question authority. That's what I remember. But, I also remember not wanting to hug some people for different reasons. Should we be telling our kids to hug other people?

Katia Hetter, a CNN writer, wrote an article about her views concerning telling her daughter to hug someone. She realized the importance of teaching our young ones about boundaries, especially about body boundaries. She wanted to make sure her daughter knew that she had the right to not want to hug some people.

apost.com

So, when she and her 4-year old daughter went to visit her grandmother, Katia told her daughter that hugging her grandma would make her happy, but she wouldn't have to do it if she didn't want to. She wanted her daughter to learn about consent and that her body belonged to her alone. If she didn't want to hug someone, it shouldn't be a big deal.

Katia's documented some great findings in her article from Irene van der Zande, co-founder of Kidpower, an organization focused on youth violence prevention and personal safety. Irene feels that we sometimes consider the feelings of relatives and friends instead of thinking about the impact a forced hug can have on a child. She believe that we should teach them that they are always in control of everything that happens to their bodies.

Katia posted her article on Facebook and it quickly went viral. It was shared over 51,000 times on the Safe Kids page and then shared another 165,000 times on A Mighty Girl. Clearly, this was a topic that sparked a lot of personal interest.

Her post showed an innocent little girl with caption that tries to reinforce her point. The little girl says that she is only five years old and doesn't want to be forced to kiss or hug. She asks everyone to support her right to privacy so she can learn about limits.

Of course, the comments were varied. Of the people who agreed with Katia, Judy Sheridan commented that she always paid attention to whether a child looked uncomfortable if a parent was pushing for a hug and would offer a high-5 instead.

On the other side of the fence, Rhys Greenaway posted that he had been raised to always hug all of his family members every time he saw them and he turned out all right.

What do you think about Katia's approach? Should we still be making our children hug? Let us know!