I do a fair amount of scanning of posts, but I just read that word for word. Critical. My son is 8, so addressing things like this are becoming a part of my reality more often. Rape hasn’t come up yet, and I’m not sure how I would address so something like this. We talk about empathy a lot, partly because that is part of my own mission to keep my son from becoming a menace. I think I would start there — that rape is perhaps the ultimate lack of empathy, so definitely not a game. It is just sickening to imagine kids that age playing rape, partly because it’s hard to imagine that they can do so and not know what is at stake. I’m sure they have no idea how serious it is, and the significance is likely beyond them, but they still must know what sex is, and I agree that it has something to do with power/domination. So, given those thoughts, if I sound out my son was prticpting I would have to assume it was time to start having honest conversations about sex.
Empathy, exactly!!! And education and conversation, absolutely!