11. Supporting Your Kids to Have Healthy Relationships & Friendships

When do kids start dating...and what does that look like? How do social media and various apps affect relationships? How and when do we bring up consent? What are red flags your child might be in an unhealthy relationship or friendship? Today Joe Myers from Crime Victims’ Center of Chester County returns (our first return guest!) to answer all these questions and more. We also discuss: the age when kids should have a solid understanding of reproduction, how to teach your kids to both give and get consent from others, and how consent and boundaries are BFFs. This episode is coming out during the first week of April, which is Sexual Assault Awareness Month, and we dive into what sexual assault means, how we can try to prevent our kids from being assaulted, and also what to do if something does happen. We also discuss (and link up below) many resources with videos and scripts on how to have these conversations so that “if we aren’t weird, it won’t be weird.” Join us!

Things we mentioned during our conversation:

Joe was our guest for Episode 5: Bullying & Cyberbullying.

AMAZE has great resources for both kids and parents on healthy relationships, consent, boundaries, sexual education and more. 

Chrissie talked about the books  “It’s Not the Stork” and “It’s So Amazing”, part of a series of children’s books by Robie Harris. 

Joe mentioned Safe Secure Kids as a resource for parents to learn skills to talk to their kids about respect, consent, and other topics (with videos, handouts, and “learn together” games). 

April is Sexual Assualt Awareness Month (SAAM) and the theme is “Building Safe Online Spaces Together”. Denim Day, as part of this awareness campaign, is happening on April 27th. CVC will also be doing programming–be sure to follow CVC on FaceBook and Instagram at the links below!

Crime Victims’ Center of Chester County (CVC) is a nonprofit agency providing free, immediate, and confidential crisis response and compassionate support to children and adults impacted by sexual violence and all other crime. CVC provides assistance through counseling, advocacy, resources, and education. The Center fosters community awareness and understanding through its comprehensive outreach and prevention programs.

Support CVC by joining the virtual Race Against Violence this May! Sign up here!

CVC’s 24/7 Hotlines: Sexual Assault (610) 692-7273 and Other Crimes (610) 692-7420

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/cvcofcc

Instagram: @crime_victims_center

LinkTree: https://linktr.ee/CVCCC

CVC Staff are available to present to your school, parent group, workplace and/or community on topics including bullying, healthy relationships, mandated reporting, respect at work, and more. Click here for more information about available programs.  

You can now follow Chrissie on Instagram @ctc_chrissie for info from each episode, Parent to Parent blog updates, and other parent resources. 

Communities that Care has a Parent to Parent Blog and many online resources and webinars. Please follow us on socials for more tips, resources and support!:

Instagram @downingtownctc 

Facebook @DowningtownAreaCTC 

Twitter @DowningtownCTC 

YouTube

LinkedIn

Be sure to Subscribe/Follow us to get new episodes every other Monday. We would love to hear from you! Please email Chrissie with any questions, comments or other feedback at cdziembowski@dtownctc.org 

Find the episode webpage and previous episodes HERE.