A recent study conducted by the Australian Centre to Counter Child Exploitation revealed that 4 in 5 parents would respond with anger and blame if they discovered their child was sharing inappropriate images online.
By: Steff Willis,ย 96five
The Australian Federal Police are urging parents to take a compassionate approach when it comes to the online behaviour to ensure that parents remain approachable in the eyes of their kids.
Brett Ryan from Focus on the Family Australia talks about the importance of compassion and how to lead healthy conversations about tricky topics with your children.
These conversations are becoming increasingly complex due our rapidly changing world. Where we once passed notes to our crushes at school, itโs becoming increasingly common to send or coerce others into sending inappropriate images to one another.
โAt the click of a button you can have access to incredible and healthy information but at the same time it has some detrimental effects. They can be pornography, sexting or highly sexualised contentโ says Brett.
โWeโre not perfect parents and weโre not going to have perfect kids either. Our kids are going to make mistakes and how we respond to our children when they do is critical.โ
โThe calmer we are, the more that we show that we care, the more we show that weโre compassionate and understanding. There will still be consequences of their poor choices but our job as parents is to be their pre-frontal cortex. Their pre-frontal cortex is not quite developed yet and so theyโll do things without thinking through the consequencesโ says Brett.
โOur kids are going to make mistakes and how we respond when they do is critical.โ ~ Brett Ryan, Focus on the Family
So how can we be more compassionate in our homes and towards our children when they make mistakes? Where do we start?
Brett encouraged us to look in the mirror. To check in with how weโre coping as a parent. Ask yourself, how am I really coming across? Am I reacting or responding?
If youโre struggling and you feel like youโre going to lose it โ try removing yourself from the situation for a few moments โ to breathe, regulate your own emotions so you can approach the situation with compassion and understanding.
โOur kids are going to be faced with all sorts of challenges and our homes should be a haven. Whether itโs with Mum or with Dad, that they can actually come and talk about these things, and know weโre not going to react, weโre going to respondโ.
The best option is to try and have these tricky conversations in advance. Your children will be more willing to bring things to you and theyโll be more comfortable to talk about anything and everything.
Focus on the Family have a number of resources available on their website includes tools on how to talk about the big issues with your kids.
Article supplied with thanks toย CHRISTIAN MEDIA & ARTS AUSTRALIA, fromย 96five.
Feature image: byย Ralston Smithย onย Unsplashย