I was sent a webinar through a college I attended. It was very interesting what they talked about. I had to do with shifting blame.

It was about rape culture and how our society still focused on what women did to deserve it. How even though studies show that it is highly unlikely women will falsely report, that story is still spread and believed by people. It is how we focus our training on protection instead of prevention.

It made me think about what would happen if we started teaching each other to respect the word no.

What would happen if we started at a young age talking about consent.

There is balance when you are working with children. What I mean is there is a difference between being rude and speaking what you need.

To make a child hug when they do not feel like it isn’t being rude. However, teaching them how to respond in a skillful manner that they do not want to hug is teaching them to be respectful. Making them hug when they do not want to is teaching them their voice and body do not matter and that their boundaries do not need to be respected. It sets them up for confusion around the word no for themselves and others.

Blame is less likely to happen when we learn skills on how to respect ourselves, speak what we need, listen to what the other person needs, and respect that other person needs.