Why My Children Will Be Taught Consent At A Young Age

There are so many situations that consent comes into play. It is not always about the things that usually occur in the bedroom. Life throws curveballs and a lot of us are thrown into uncomfortable situations. With these situations, we are faced with choices. We have to weigh the consequences of these choices to make our best-educated decision as an adult. But we did not just wake up one day and be able to automatically make these choices. We were taught by individuals in our lives that it is important to look at and research before you make any decision.

Remember those research projects you had to do in high school? The annoying ones where you had to back up your perspective with concrete research. Well, this was one of life's big lessons that most of us pulled from our high school careers. We learned that there is more to think about than just "I want this." One huge lesson we all should have started to learn more about as early as kindergarten was consent. Understanding and using consent is what will help shape the young minds into older minds that listen to what others have to say.

Any child that I will come across in my life will learn that if Johnny says "no" to anything that we listen to the no. We do not try to convince Johnny otherwise. This is so important. If we allow children to change Johnny's mind, then we are teaching them that it is okay to pressure someone into something that they didn't originally want to do. Therefore even if it is to share a toy, a marker, or just to play that we teach our children that if someone says "no", it means exactly that no.

Consent should be taught as soon as the child is able to understand fully what yes and what no means. Teach our children consent and help them form into the young adults that will be taking our places when we are old. No means no.