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Protecting the Gift:
Keeping Children and
Teenagers Safe (And Parents Sane)
by Gavin De Becker
Be warned: In many ways this is
a terrifying book. It deals with a subject--violence against children--that most of us
never want to consider. But, as Gavin De Becker stresses, such situations, though rare,
can occur, so all parents must deal with the facts in order to protect their children
properly. De Becker's aim is to create awareness of potential dangers and provide parents
with the knowledge necessary for prevention and control. As he emphatically states in
Protecting the Gift, much of this knowledge is already hard-wired in the form of
intuition: "This natural ability is deep, brilliant, powerful. Nature's greatest
accomplishment, the human brain, is stunningly efficient when its host is at risk, but
when one's child is at risk, it moves to a whole new level, one we can justifiably call
miraculous." The trick, he stresses, is trusting and acting on intuition.
In this valuable, even necessary, book, he shatters many myths about the typical
profiles of regular offenders and the prevalence of such problems as sexual abuse and
kidnapping. He also deconstructs the wisdom of traditional maxims such as "Never talk
to strangers" and "If you are ever lost, go to a policeman." Without
offering a compendium of every conceivable danger, he identifies warning signals and real
risks that are often easy to spot once you know what to look for. He offers practical
advice on recognizing signs of sexual abuse, choosing a baby sitter or nanny, how to
prepare kids for walking to school alone, and how to teach children about potential risks
without making them afraid to venture out of the house. And he continually stresses that
denial and ignoring intuition are the biggest mistakes that parents make in protecting
their kids from those that mean them harm. Well written and infinitely informative,
Protecting the Gift affords parents more confidence and less reason for unnecessary worry.
--Shawn Carkonen |
