Responding to your child's sexual abuse

Lois Lee, PhD, Founder & President of Children of the Night, shares advice for parents on how to properly respond after your child tells you they have been sexually abused
How To Respond To Your Child's Sexual Abuse
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Responding to your child's sexual abuse

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When a child says that they've been sexually abused or someone has touched them inappropriately and it scared them, you need to believe the child and you need to take the side with the child. You also need to help the child gather evidence. You need to empower the child to let them know that this is not okay and it's not the child's fault and we're going to do something about it because this is a bad person who did this. And I'm going to stand by you to see this through because no one is more important to me than you because you're my child. Police officers are pretty good at coming and being the police officers to where they take a stand they're going to go to get the bad guy. A child testifying in court, if handled empowering experience because they get to see the person who abused them in handcuffs, oftentimes in jail clothes. They get to stand on the side of people who are pointing the fingers at the bad guy. They get to sit up next to the judge and they can talk directly to the judge. It doesn't have to be a negative experience if everybody is in on it. The problem is is that often have relationships that are more important to us and we ask our children to please ignore and pretend like the sexual abuse didn't happen. "Come on honey, it's Christmas, can't you just pretend that it didn't happen? You know he's part of the family and he's going to be here". I've heard that countless times.

Lois Lee, PhD, Founder & President of Children of the Night, shares advice for parents on how to properly respond after your child tells you they have been sexually abused

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Lois Lee, PhD, JD

Founder & President Children of the Night

Dr. Lois Lee is a pioneer and trailblazer in rescuing America’s sex trafficked children right here in the United States.  She is the founder and president of Children of the Night and has rescued over 10,000 children from prostitution—that is more children than all of the other sex trafficking organizations combined. Since 1979 she has raised more than $40 million in private donations to support her groundbreaking programs. Diplomats come from all over the world to observe Lee's ground-breaking work at the Children of the Night home. Dr. Lee has received countless awards for her humanitarian work, most notably the prestigious President's Volunteer Action Award, presented to her by President Ronald Reagan at the White House in 1984, and permanent memorial portrait at the Frederick Douglas Museum honors her 1994 National Caring Award. Her life story was portrayed in a CBS Movie of the Week “Children of the Night” in 1985 and she was profiled on CBS “60 Minutes” in 1987. Dr. Lee was lauded by singer/songwriter Richard Marx in his song "Children of the Night," which appeared on his 1989 Repeat Offender album.

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