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CEO of sexual exploitation prevention company shares ‘controversial’ toddler lesson on consent
This mom and CEO of a sexual exploitation prevention company revealed the “controversial” lesson she taught a toddler in her daughter’s preschool class about consent.
Tiana Sharifi (@tianasharifi) is a mom and business owner who runs a company that teaches young people about sexual exploitation and assault. Tiana believes it’s important to teach kids about consent and boundary-setting from a young age. That’s why, when a boy in her two-year-old daughter’s preschool class was invading her daughter’s personal space, she decided to teach them both a lesson that some might view as controversial.
In the video, Tiana explains that her daughter recently began attending preschool. “With my daughter, even though she’s two, I’ve always thought I have to model for her what consent looks like,” Tiana says. “So my controversial parenting decision was that I took her to day care and it was one of those gradual entry types of days so I was with her in a group setting with a bunch of other toddlers.”
Tiana recalls that one toddler, in particular, kept yelling in her daughter’s face. “Each time he does this—and she was very strong in doing this from a young age—she would just yell, ‘No,’” Tiana explains. “This happened repeatedly. He kept coming and yelling in her face and she would say, ‘No, no no no no.’”
Finally, Tiana’s daughter lost her patience. “He comes and screams in her face again and what she does is she grabs her hand, and she just grabs his face pretty aggressively and just throws it aside,” Tiana says.
Tiana reveals that her first instinct was to scold her daughter and remind her to use “gentle hands.” However, after giving it some thought, Tiana felt that her daughter didn’t deserve criticism. Rather, the toddler who yelled in her face needed a lesson about consent.
She told the boy, “She said no to you multiple times. She said no when you came in her face. She didn’t like it and it didn’t make her feel safe. You didn’t listen to her ‘no’ and that’s what happens when you don’t listen to a ‘no.’”
“I decided in that moment not to teach my daughter about anything that she did wrong because she actually didn’t,” Tiana concludes. “And the fact that she said ‘no’ in a peaceful manner so many times was impressive enough.”
Viewers applauded the mom for her lesson on consent.
“As a mom of boys, I will always stand up for your daughter in that situation,” one mom wrote.
“Impressive. You’ve changed my perspective and how I’d have handled the situation without thinking,” another viewer commented.
“You handled this well!” wrote another TikToker.
What do you think of this mom’s “controversial” lesson?
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