Do you think parents should get baby consent to changing their nappies? Indeed, this issue has been raised by a sexuality expert on ABC News Australia, and the least we can say is that everyone picked a side. Let us explain, so you can decide which one you’re in.
The expert’s point of view
Deanne Carson is a sexuality educator, a speaker and author. She has been working at Body Safe Australia an association specialized in preventing child abuse. She declared on ABC News “we work with parents from birth on how to set up a culture of consent in their home”. Indeed, as a specialist she insists on the fact that parents should ask for consent. Aware of the fact that the baby “is not going to respond: Yes mommy I want my nappy changed”. Just asking before changing it and read through your child’s body language can be a good way to implement a “culture of consent”. The culture of consent theorized by Deanne Carson is a method that aims to make your child fully aware that he’s in control of his body from the youngest age.
Using this method will theoretically help your child to recognize sexual abuse situations. He will then be able to understand when someone is overcrossing limits.
Is asking your baby consent ridiculous?
Highlighted
As soon as this interview was broadcasted a lot of people started to comment it on social media. More specifically, many parents even described it as a form of child’s abuse. For a lot social media users, asking baby consent will only result in giving rash to your child. Yes, because it is frequent that child will scream and cry when you’ll try to change them but waiting their approval is not a safe option for their skin that can get burned. Moreover many parents expressed the fact that your kid will certainly have a reaction to you asking consent but how to interpret this information in the right way? All these reactions on the method led to Deanne Carson explaining herself on her personal Facebook account.
Justifications
Deanne Carson decided to write an explanation judging that she has been unfairly criticized by all the parents. She shared statistics about sexual assaults on minors, explaining that the goal is to give to “infants’ bodily autonomy”. However it seems that the majority of parents on social media are not agreeing with her still. We can actually wonder if the method of asking baby consent is a good option or not. But a little communication with your baby cannot harm anyone right?
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