An intense trend has been making waves on social media, where women say they’d rather be alone in the woods with a bear than a man.
I’m actually not here to comment on that, but it got me thinking of another situation:
My 6-year-old son dreams of visiting Yellowstone National Park. “Pleeeease can we go?!” he’s always asking me. The problem is I’m terrified of bears – and that’s bear country. My kid isn’t scared though. (He’s still waiting on the “healthy fear” part of his brain to finish developing).
Someday, he’s gonna visit Yellowstone, with or without me. So instead of just saying, “Nope! There’s bears!” I need to do my research and equip him with the skills, knowledge, and best practices to handle a bear encounter as safely as possible.
What’s my point? There are predators just on the other side of your child’s smartphone and in your community. They’re not only men. People of any gender, career, background, etc. are trafficking children. As parents or caregivers, we have the responsibility to prepare them to navigate the dangers of the world as best as we can.
While our first instinct may be to shelter our children from harm, we have to empower them to manage what life might throw at them as they grow up.
-Marilyn Murray
Love146 Director of Communications
About Love146
Established in 2002, Love146’s vision is the end of child trafficking and exploitation. Love146 connects the dots to understand how vulnerability operates in the lives of children, and intervene both to care for survivors who have been harmed and ultimately to prevent the harm from happening in the first place. This work is achieved through the power of relationships and collaboration, listening to those with lived experience and diverse backgrounds, scaling proven practices, and challenging the systems that leave children vulnerable. Recognizing that the end of child trafficking cannot be achieved by only one person, organization, perspective, or approach, Love146 strives to set a big table in order to foster collaborations and collective will. Love146’s core commitment is to do what is best for children. Learn more about our work at https://love146.org/.
