Be the one with the inside information: Protective Behaviours Conversations

The first piece in this series was about having small conversations often. One question in the car on the way to swimming, and making a point of having at least one conversation a month. This time, I want to get into what we actually say to children, review my favourite child protection books and tell […]

The Children Missing from the Report

I write about protecting children, understanding trauma and finding a way forward. From the conversations that help children stay safe to the work of healing after trauma and the systems that must do better, I explore the things we need to understand, the questions we need to ask and the changes we need to make. […]

How to Face the News on Child Abuse Without Living in Fear: A Guide to Protective Behaviours

I’m a psychologist turned child safety advocate after my son disclosed abuse at daycare. I write about the gaps in childcare safety, regulation and justice, and the signs parents are trained not to see. Evidence for parents, from a parent. People keep telling me to stop reading about abuse because it’s too negative. Here’s why […]

I Interrupted a Grooming Process at My Child’s Childcare Program. Here’s How.

I am an advocate. I have spent so much of my time and energy focused on child protection, on bringing the unseen into the light and exposing the scale of abuse within the childcare sector – that I failed to notice something happening right under my own roof. It had been months since I’d last […]

I Interrupted a Grooming Process at My Child’s Childcare Program. Here’s How.

I am an advocate. I have spent so much of my time and energy focused on child protection, on bringing the unseen into the light and exposing the scale of abuse within the childcare sector – that I failed to notice something happening right under my own roof. It had been months since I’d last […]

Bonnie Blue’s Newborn Videos: What a Child Protection Worker Actually Sees

A woman in Williamsburg, Virginia, was convicted last month of letting her five-year-old son walk 800 metres — half a mile — to a pond to collect goose feathers. The walk was along a footpath in a gated community. He had to cross two streets at marked crossings, with a security post staffed around the […]

Bonnie Blue’s Newborn Videos: What a Child Protection Worker Actually Sees

The walk Karyann Parkinson let her five-year-old son walk 800 metres — half a mile — to a pond to collect goose feathers. That is what she was convicted over in late August. The walk was along a footpath in a gated community in Williamsburg, Virginia, separated from the road by about ten feet of […]

What Would Happen If? A Simple Protective Behaviours Conversation for Parents

I’ve spent most of this year writing about things I have very little control over. Child care regulation, quality standards, the gaps between what a policy document says and what actually happens on a centre floor. That work matters. It’s the only way the system will ever be held to account but we need to […]

What Would Happen If? A Simple Protective Behaviours Conversation for Parents

I’ve spent most of this year writing about things I have very little control over. Child care regulation, quality standards, the gaps between what a policy document says and what actually happens on a centre floor. That work matters. It’s the only way the system will ever be held to account but we need to […]

Delayed disclosure in childcare is the norm, so why are we treating silence as safety?

Part one of two. Subscribe to have part two delivered to your inbox, its free. Subscribe now My son, under five, told me, and I thought that was the hard part. I thought I had the training. As a psychologist I had sat in the other chair for years while adults described things from their […]