What to Watch for When Adults Are Alone With Your Children

If you witness a child and an adult interacting and it makes you uncomfortable, don't dismiss it as paranoia. Don't worry about overreacting. It's better to be safe than sorry. This is when parents should be extremely cautious about how much freedom they give their children and where and with whom they allow their kids to spend time. Child-On-Child sexual abuse is often how molestation begins. We must begin with trying to prevent the cycle from repeating itself with children as well as with adults.

Watch for an adult or child who:
 Adults who do not take interest in dating people their own age.
 Allows children or teens to consistently get away with inappropriate behaviors.
 Buys children expensive gifts or gives them money for no apparent reason.
 Frequently walks in on children/teens in the bathroom.
 Insists on hugging, touching, kissing, tickling, wrestling with or holding a child even when the child does not want this affection.
 Is overly interested in the sexuality of a particular child or teen (e.g. talks repeatedly about the child’s developing body or interferes with normal teen dating).
 Manages to get time alone or insists on time alone with a child with no interruptions.
 Refuses to let a child set any of his or her own limits.
 Regularly offers to babysit many different children for free or takes children on overnight outings alone.
 Spends most of his/her spare time with children and has little interest in spending time with someone of his/her own age.
 The child or adult has a startled look or stunned reaction when other people enter the room.
 Unexplained time lapses of activity when you ask a child what they have been doing, (Do they always answer “Nothing”, or seem to avoid the question?)
 Unusual quietness when conversation should be heard.