What a sobering article! Thank you for pointing out what anyone with even an iota of common sense needs to realize. What is also important to realize is that it is women as well as men who do the abusing.
Sadly, many times parents can get so caught up with life that they will not see the clues in their child's behavior around another adult. And quite often the clues are the only thing there to point to the evil that is being perpetrated on the child - verbalization occurs much later, sometimes decades later.
I think also that others (parents, friends, relatives) need to respect a parent's unwillingness or hesitation to leave a child in the care of another person that they do not feel 100% confident about. It should not cause disparaging remarks to the parent who refuses to take a child to daycare because the n'er do well brother who is down on his luck is staying there temporarily. Similarly, it should not be frowned upon when the parent does not want to leave a child at a church daycare or Sunday school class with a new teacher she or he has never met before. Yet how often have we rolled our eyes (at least inwardly) when we saw one of these cautious parents and in so many ways rushed them to get on with it already. After all, we know the person and that makes it ok (or so we think.)
In a way I truly wonder if there is not a bit more that we can do to help parents exercise their caution, common sense, and give them the ability to react to a gut feel, even if it turns out to be nothing.
