Child Abuse Prevention Month is upon us! But what does that mean exactly? How can you or I prevent abuse in April? How can we make a difference? We could start with just one small thing each day to help prevent child abuse right where we are, like being more aware, for example. We can start by being aware of how our words and our choices might affect the littles in our lives, and how being a good example of treating others kindly can impact not only our children but also the community in which we are raising them.
What if, in April, we did just one small thing at a time? What if we started by taking the time to consider our littles and what hope we’d like to share with them for a better tomorrow? What if we started taking small steps toward thinking about how to make the next generation, healthier, and wiser and better than we are? What would that look like? For me, it would look something like this – be the person you hope your children will one day be. Act like the adult you hope they will become. Want your children to be kind? Be kind. Want your children to be considerate? Be considerate. Want your children to grow up to be amazing? Well, then, be amazing! It’s not so overwhelming when we break it down into what we really want for our children.
All too often we expect our children to do as we say and not as we do, but unfortunately, it doesn’t work that way. Actually, that should be “fortunately” because the good news is that raising tolerant, loving, non-abusive humans is far simpler than we like to make it, and by raising our children without abuse, we actually stop abuse for generations to come. Join us as this month of April and its new possibilities with small steps of stopping abuse – one month, one day, one hour, one step at a time.
Do you know your score?
Answer ten questions and
understand your future health.

Laura Fogarty
Editor, Ask Lala
Laura Fogarty writes “Ask Lala” for the Stop Abuse Campaign. She is a mother, an advocate and the author of two children’s abuse prevention books: I’M THE BOSS OF ME! and WE ARE JUST ALIKE!