Inside: Find out how to turn a person wearing headphones as they walk down the street, into a teachable moment with your child about love, sex and relationships.
So how do you turn ‘wearing headphones’ into an opportunity to teach your child something important.
Teachable moments should be your Number 1 strategy for sex education!
Learn more about what a teachable moment is.
Read the transcription
[00:00:00] How do you turn someone wearing headphones into a teachable moment? Let’s find out.
[Music].
[00:00:12] Hi, I’m Cath Hak from Sex Ed Rescue. Sex Ed Rescue is that channel where we talk about sex education to help you comfortable talk to your kids.
Now, teachable moments are great tools to help you do this. They are everyday opportunities you can find and use as a chance to talk to your kids about sex. So, headphones are a great option.
Now, when I pick my kids up from school, the traffics hitting peak hour, so we drive slowly. To pass the time, we count how many people are wearing headphones. Or, if there’s too many, we’ll count the people who aren’t. While we do this, I’ll say, ‘Ah, look at all these people on the streets with their headphones on. They must be listening to music or even calling someone.’ But, since they’re normally looking at their phone, I’ll also go, ‘But what if a car had an accident and drove up onto the street? They wouldn’t hear or see it coming!’ Along with that, we also talk about how when you’ve got headphones on, you don’t know what’s happening around you.
Since I live in the inner city, I’m very conscious of talking to my kids about safety. It doesn’t matter what gender your child is, you should talk to them about being safe in your area.
[00:02:00] In my family, we talk about how listening to music while walking or even riding a bike isn’t safe. How if they’re holding a phone, someone could grab it from behind and run. Someone could steal from their bag or move out of the way for them.
If they’re doing this, they’re not being very safe or responsible. If they aren’t paying attention, a man in a wheelchair or mum with kids could get stuck behind them. As we talk about that, I can gently bring in road safety and general safety when walking home. That, when we walk on the footpath, we make sure that we always know what’s going on around us.
[00:02:51] Now, I wouldn’t talk to my kids about the fact that someone could drag them away and rape them. We talk about that as they get older because there’s a line between not scaring them and keeping them safe. I use headphones a lot because I don’t want my teenage daughter walking home with headphones on. If she does that, she’s at a risk. That risk could be a car reversing, someone attacking her from behind, or someone trying to grab her attention. It’s not safe behavior. So, seeing people walk around with headphones on is a good chance to plant those seeds at a young age. This is so that, as they get older, they can make more informed decisions.
Often my daughter will go, ‘Well, what if we walk with one earphone in and the other out?’ So, we talk about that stuff as well. My husband’s a cyclist, so he goes on about how wearing headphones while biking is dangerous. If you do that, other cyclists could get stuck behind you or won’t be able to pass.
[00:04:35] Headphones on is just a great opportunity to talk about how when we’re out in public, we need to stay safe. Staying safe is being aware of what’s going on in your environment.
Anyway, I’d love to know if there are any ideas that you might have because I probably missed a lot. I don’t plan these videos because teachable moments are like that; one pops up and you must decide on the spot.
Hopefully, this video gave you some conversation ideas.
Okay, cheers.
