It’s been a question that y’all have asked me a lot! Is it safe to send kids to sleepovers?

In the past decade, CSA survivors have been sharing their trauma and ringing alarm bells on why sleepovers are not safe for kids. Parents are rightfully concerned about potentially putting their child into an unsafe situation and many are wondering, is there a way to ensure that a sleepover is safe?

Recently, I was forced to make this decision. My kid was invited to a sleepover birthday party and I immediately hesitated saying yes. My instinct said no and my reason was because I didn’t believe they were ready yet to attend their first sleepover.

“But why can’t I go?” -was the question my kid asked me. I wasn’t going to say, “because I said so.” Therefore, I needed to finally establish my boundaries on sleepovers. And now that I have - I am feeling much better with the rationale for my decision.

Here are the 5 boundaries I have put in place to decide if my kid is ready to attend their first sleepover.

1. Body Safety & Sex Education

2. Sex Offender Registry

3. Parent to Parent Comms

4. Exit Strategy Skill Building

5. Attending a Sleepover

I go through each of these boundaries in this week’s YouTube video while explaining my harm reduction approach to determining whether a child is ready or not for their first sleepover.

1700+ Parents Have Downloaded my FREEBIE: Are you one of them? (I’d love some feedback!)

Are you one of the 1700+ parents who have grabbed the free digital download the Sex Talks Starter Pack? If you haven’t downloaded it yet - check out this lovely message I got from a mom who was feeling confident to get the early sex talks going with her 7 year-old after downloading my free guide.

If you can take the next 2 minutes to share with me what you found to be useful (or not so helpful) from the Starter Pack - I’d greatly appreciate it! My goal is to make content and products that don’t waste your time! Give your constructive Feedback Here! 

Happy 1st Birthday to Puberty Topics in a Jar!

One year ago, I was looking for a fun way to get the Puberty Talks started with my 8 year-old. I knew that I wanted to make it fun and more interesting than just suggesting to my kid that we can look through a book together.

Puberty Topics in a Jar was born! I chose to introduce it to my kid as a 30 day challenge-type game. Each day, my kid would pick a question out of the jar and we would read the question and the answer together.

It was unbelievably simple and easy to do! My kid loved Puberty Topics in a Jar and I think yours will too! It took less that a few minutes to do everyday! Find out more about the digital download here! Or check out this reel that I made last year when my kid reminded me that we forgot to do our Puberty Talk Question!!

thekathleenhema

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It’s almost Spring Break! I hope you are able to take some time and be present with your family over the next few weeks.

As always - Thank You for being here and aiming to have confident talks with your kid!

If your organization, company, or school is looking for a guest speaker - I’d love to be that person! Share this newsletter with them or pass along my email!

Parenting the Talks with You!

Kathleen