Children in our society are taught to respect and obey adults. We teach our children to be polite to adults and to do as they are told. Most people don’t think to talk to their children about trusting their intuition when it comes to an adult doing the wrong thing. Even fewer of us give our children permission to stand up to an adult if they think they are doing the wrong thing (touching them where they shouldn’t).
At the age of five or six, our kids may not know what the word intuition means, but it’s our responsibility as parents to let them know that if something doesn’t feel right then they have permission to say so. This will be incredibly difficult for a child. They need to know that they have permission to stand up to them and shout “No, I don’t like it”.
Our intuition sends messages to warn us. It may be sent via feeling slightly uncomfortable, apprehensive, feeling doubt and also as fear. Tell kids that intuition is the feeling in your tummy that you get when something seems wrong. Intuition saves us from danger. We need to tell our kids to listen to these internal warnings and give them permission to act on them.
How should they act on these warning signals? In the words of Gavin De Becker in his book Protecting the Gift, ‘If someone says don’t yell – yell! If someone says don’t tell – tell!” Stand up and shout “No, I don’t like it”.
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