NJ to teach private parts to your pre-schooler (Opinion)

Its not the governments job. It’s not the school’s job. It’s not the teachers job. I, the parent, am the one who should decide how and when to teach my children about sexual abuse. I’ll do it in the way and at the time I see fit. But in a distressing bill that has swept the NJ legislature, teachers will tell kids-beginning in Pre-K, when a child could be 3 or 4 years old, about “safe touch” to deter sexual abuse.

This means some kids' first conversations about their private parts will be with their teachers, not you. It means that the government will design lessons for teachers to talk to your kids about the touching of said private parts. This should really give you pause, if not make you very angry.

This is just another way for the government to usurp parental duties, hence turning your kids into little government guinea pigs. It’s sickening and confusing to kids. Who do they really trust? Who should they go to with their problems? The parents? No! The teachers, obviously. Talk about the breakdown of the family!

The government actually promotes it by trying to be a better parent than you are. Patrice Lenowitz, executive director of the Nurtured Parent, a support organization for survivors of domestic abuse based in Rochelle Park, said lessons for young students focus on “the bathing suit area.” Eww. Don’t discuss the “bathing suit area” with my child!

“Anything that’s covered by a bathing suit is your private parts. And no one has the right to touch you in your private parts, as well as you are not allowed to touch someone else in their private part areas,” she said. “And so it’s very basic but also very understandable for little ones.”

I’m uncomfortable with this. I don’t even want “private parts” or “bathing suit areas” referred to in front of my 3 year old by a representative of the government. It’s creepy, weird and inappropriate.This is a family discussion and a family’s job.

I don’t want someone who’s possibly a couple years out of college to discuss this sensitive issue with my 3 or 4 year old. If I don’t feel comfortable or knowledgeable enough, I’ll ask my pediatrician or my clergyman or my sisters or my mom advice on how to have this conversation. (If I feel like it’s time and that my child is mature enough to understand it.)

Do we forget that these kids our ours, not the governments?

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