Those Are MY Private Parts by Diane Hansen

This book reminds me of that 1980’s commercial with Emmanuel Lewis (the short kid from Webster, if anyone remembers) where he says “say no, go, and tell.” The problem with that commercial was that absolutely no child in the USA had any idea what they were talking about. Unfortunately, Those Are MY Private Parts has the same fault; kids will not understand any of it.

TAMPP consists of short poems that say “there is no private parts game” or “I don’t have to let anyone see my private parts.” The reason I think it’s futile is that these kids can’t say no, and the reason they can’t say no is that they’re not allowed to. Kids are always taught to obey authority, so what happens when mom and dad leave their kid with Uncle Ralph for the night and he tries something? Let’s say eight year old Marsha gets dirty from picking berries, so Uncle Ralph insists she take a bath. Then he insists on not only “helping” her undress, but insists on scrubbing her back, cleaning those “hard to reach places,” and then giving her a good “drying off.” What is Marsha going to do? Do you think she’s going to bark “those are MY private parts, and you’re not allowed to touch them!” I doubt it, because the average kid doesn’t want to displease the grownups and risk getting them mad at her.

Perhaps the book would serve a greater purpose if it involved a fictional story with regular illustrations? Kids need concrete examples in order to learn, and they learn best by seeing examples of rules in action. Another reason why I think this book won’t work is that kids (especially in the USA) are taught to allow “forcible touching.” By that I mean telling them “go give Uncle Ralph a hug or you can’t have your Christmas presents” or it can be “give your aunt a kiss or I’ll be very angry!” If we dictate to kids that they have to let grownups touch them, how can we expect them to tell the difference between acceptable and unacceptable touching?