I know how uncomfortable this topic feels for most parents. Suicide, self-harm and mental health are conversations we'd all rather not have to have with our kids. But avoiding them doesn't make our children safer, it just means that if these feelings ever show up, they won't know what to do with the...
Picture this.
You're at a family barbecue. Your toddler doesn't want to hug Grandpa goodbye, and you say, gently, "That's okay, you don't have to." Grandpa laughs it off, but you catch the look. The one that says soft parents raising soft kids. Later, over dinner, someone mentions your daughter "tal...
For years, every time a childcare worker has been charged with offending against children in their care, the public conversation has followed the same script: shock, outrage, calls for "better vetting," and then silence - until it happens again.
It’s a reasonable response but I don't think that scrip...
By now you've probably seen the headlines. A childcare worker in Sydney, now publicly named after a court-ordered suppression was lifted, is facing over 300 charges relating to the sexual abuse and exploitation of children across more than 60 early education centres, spanning 16 years of employment....
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Nobody told you this in your Certificate III. It wasn't covered in your diploma. It probably hasn't come up in your director training, your compliance review, or your team meetings.
But every time you interview someone for a role in your early childhood centre, you are making a child safety deci...
Can my child go to a sleepover? Is it safe to send them to daycare? Should I let them online? Can I post a photo of them on social media?
These are the questions keeping parents up at night. And I get it - the world feels scarier than ever. The headlines are relentless. The warnings are constant. A...
 What to say when the adults you love are modelling the exact behaviours that put children at risk.
I want to talk about something that doesn’t get said enough.
The behaviours we most commonly associate with grooming and child sexual abuse - the testing of boundaries, the forced physical affection...
I spent nearly six years as a detective specialising in child sexual abuse investigations. In that time, I interviewed hundreds of children and sat across the table from the people who hurt them.
One thing was always true: the abuse didn't start with the abuse.
It started long before - with a proc...
Let me say something that might surprise you.
Not everyone who displays red flag behaviours will abuse your child.Â
But here's what I know from nearly a decade investigating child sexual abuse - everyone who abuses a child displays red flag behaviours first.
Read that again.
Red flags are not a ...
When is a child’s sexualised behaviour age-appropriate and when is it something we need to interrupt?
In Australia, the term used to describe sexualised behaviours between children that are inappropriate or problematic is Harmful Sexualised Behaviours (HSB).
For some adults, certain behaviours wou...
I received a message recently that made me think about all the times when I was still in the Police and I felt like protecting kids was an impossible task and being a Police Officer didn't help anyone.Â
I had many days where I I felt that what I was doing didn't matter. If I'm honest, I still have da...
Recent cases involving female educators and carers have understandably shaken people and forced many of us to re-examine assumptions about who we trust with our children.
Not because abuse by a female perpetrator is new - but because when a woman, particularly a trusted adult such as a teacher, har...
