While I was never blessed with children of my own, I started babysitting when I was in 4^th grade.  After church service ended, you would always find me in the nursery with the toddlers.  Around 14 years old, we were living in a military complex with 50+ families that were always in need of someone to watch their children.  I had two families in particular that I was the surrogate mother and was even solicited from time to time by the parents to enforce bed time because I was pretty good at getting the children to listen to me (incentives and punishments – the carrot and the stick).  All of the parents claimed I would spoil their children, which was true because I loved them like my own.  I even managed to negotiate a private tour of an aircraft carrier in return for watching a 6 week old, a three year old and a 12 year old for the three days straight their parents needed to host disco parties for the sailors.  Did you know that the skippers have a private escalator?  It was great fun.

As my career progressed, absorbing more and more of my time and energy, I apparently became “unattainable” as a spouse and so I compensated by “adopting” families and their children within my church and social circle.  These twins I met in England when they were 5 years old on a layover to South Africa and I love them like my own (they’re 20 now and in college).

All of that history to give context to my strong belief that we must fight for the innocence of our children.

It’s imperative as parents and citizens that we prioritize being educated and involved in our school system to ensure that the rules passed by our legislatures are being respected and obeyed. 

Georgia law on sex education materials used in classrooms (particularly in middle school) requires that it must be abstinence based, but there are increasing incidents where those protections are being compromised by teachers and others with an alternative agenda that is being facilitated by the lack of structural oversight and enforcement.

There is no law specifically prohibiting the inclusion of sexually explicit materials in school libraries and on the internet research platforms provided to our children; platforms to which parents are denied access.  It’s unacceptable.  Required reading lists expose our children to materials that parents don’t have the “right” to object to and, in many cases, the parents are not even notified,

despite legislation that specifically guarantees the parents’ rights to opt out of their children’s exposure to the materials.

Specific laws need to be passed making it very clear that the materials may not be forced on our children over a parent’s objection and should not be included in libraries or on internet platforms in our schools. 

Programs increasingly “normalizing” gender identification in grammar schools and transvestite reading circles in libraries border on child abuse.

No type of pedophilia is ok, despite what the current Democratic Senator recently running for President may believe.  We need to make sure we are fighting in District 13 against these abuses by supporting programs that are diligent in seeking them out and preventing them from happening. 

Proactive protection will be my mantra and I will be seeking ways from the national level tied to funding approvals to ensure the discussion receives the attention it deserves.