Thank You For Listening

Yep. That's exactly how I looked.

Today I gave my last college presentation for the semester. I felt a huge sense of accomplishment. It has been an intense few months, full of preparing for and giving lectures to students about my book. As we all know, Ezra and Hadassah isn't a stand-up comedy routine. I am happy when I can get a chuckle out of the audience in a place or two because talking about serious topics for a whole class period can be very....serious.

This time was fun because I got to the classroom before the instructor and some of the students asked if I was the guest speaker. When I said I was, they were all, "Oooo....awesome! We are looking forward to your lecture. We heard you were really, really good." and I was all , "Awww...shucks. That's nice to hear." I thought that was a kind way to start our discussion of hard things.

At the end of of my talk I took questions from the audience, which I have decided is my favorite part of speaking. The students asked smart questions that showed they were listening and thinking about what I said. One student asked, "What can a social worker do to protect a child in the foster care system from being abused?"
I responded with the truth. "Not a damned thing. You can't control how any adult treats a child outside of your view. But what you can do is be the adult a child would trust to tell if they were being abused."

So you can see, in my presentations we talk about hard things. And now I am telling you the same hard things. Being a trusted adult isn't just reserved for social workers. All adults should be the kind of people that children can turn to when bad things are happening to them. Look out for the children in your life. Watch them, talk to them, let them know you care. Most of the time, the stories they tell you will be happy ones. Enjoy them when they come. But also be ready with a comforting smile, a hug or a real offer of help if they tell you a hard story. Be the grown up that protects them and makes their world a safer place to live. 

That's really the only thing we can do.