Hey Fathers, What can you do with your Daughter Today?
This month is National Make a Difference to Children Month. And today is National Father Daughter Take a Walk Day. These recognitions tie into and are critically important to preventing human trafficking. I recently saw a statistic that 40% of all trafficked victims are initially trafficked by a family member. I’ve also read that a high percentage of trafficked victims come from the foster system. Often, the relationship between the trafficker and the victim is the first positive relationship the victim may have had.
How can this relationship be positive? For many trafficked victims the grooming by the trafficker starts out like a normal boy/girl relationship and only once the trafficker has the girl psychologically manipulated into believing he truly cares for her, does he then move to trafficking her.
What does this have to do with this month’s theme and today’s theme? Parent / child and father / daughter relationships are critically important to preventing children from entering situations where a trafficker can exploit them. A strong father / daughter bond is an important development phase of a young girl’s life. If a girl is finding the love she craves at home from her father, she is less likely to gravitate to another person outside the family for that attention.
If children feel loved and cared for at home, they are less likely to seek emotional attention outside the home. Traffickers are adept at finding and recognizing children who crave love and attention. Traffickers are masters at psychological manipulation. Supplying the emotional attachments that children are not getting at home is one key tactic traffickers use to bring victims into their stables.
If you’re a father and have a daughter, take a walk with her today. Tell her how much you love her. Make sure you’re meeting her emotional needs so someone else doesn’t step in and do that for you, someone who may not have her best interests in mind.
For all the parents out there, make a difference in your children’s lives. Love them, encourage them, supply the emotional needs they crave. Look to your children first so that they don’t need to find love elsewhere.
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