With Jacob about to start primary school in just under one weeks time, I feel a sense of foreboding in terms of the amount of prep work I am going to have to do in order to get him ready for the real world.
He is coming from the soft, dreamy, loving surrounds of his fabulous pre-school in Loughshinny, Co. Dublin into the much more grown-up environment that is ‘Big School’.
I, along with many other parents around the country, are worried about two things: dickhead kids and dickhead adults.
While I know that every primary school does their best to keep the junior and senior infants somewhat apart from the older kids until they are a little more grown up and steady on their feet, that isn’t to say that they won’t see them and feel threatened or intimidated by them.
Since the ‘boys versus girls’ and ‘who’s the leader of the gang’ has already started in his last year at pre-school, I can only imagine the kiddie-led bullying that I’m about to hear about.
In preparation for that, I am doing two things:
- talking to my kid constantly about confidence and self-assertion (“you have a voice so use it!”) and,
- signing him up for karate classes (there will be ZERO fucking about on that front)
The other thing that I am keen to address with him before he starts school is the area around body and sexual safety.
I want my son to know that he is SO RIGHT to tell someone “No!” if he feels uncomfortable around them.
I want him to know that he should ALWAYS tell me and his dad if something happens to him that he is unsure or upset about.
So how do I get that message across without using words like ‘paedophile’ or ‘sexual assault’ with my 5-year-old?
Well, by showing him this video. It is pants, but in the best possible way:
What do you think about the video? Let me know in the comments on Facebook.