If We Were Better We Would Be Prioritizing Silenced Children And Not Grown Men

This is how the rest of us end up in therapy for yearssss. Dealing with people who run to console, protect, and shield grown sturdy men and not hurtin

This is how the rest of us end up in therapy for yearssss. Dealing with people who run to console, protect, and shield grown sturdy men and not hurting and harmed women and children.

The great glass shattering comic Moms Mabley warned us about hypocrisy long before people wanted to hear it. She understood that nothing changes when people protect comfort instead of truth. Moms Mabley didn’t dress up the truth. She told it straight and let people sit with it. Phenomenal woman.

Too many folks can’t wait to run to defend and comfort adults right now. Men in particular.

Meanwhile, there are silenced children listening, watching, and learning. There always have been in this country.

We can put away our adult defending lists and support them. Can’t we?

This is not the kind of information that you run to make videos and lists about. That ought to be the old you.

Let what you know now evolve you. Change you. Grow you.

You USED to defend people you didn’t know.

Now you create safety for the most vulnerable……children.

Admitting that there have always been silenced children in THIS country but only a few were cared for is how we begin to make a change.

Save the children. Protect the children. All of them this time.

Children Who Are Often Silenced

Children being thought about in this moment, even if their names are never spoken

Children who were told to keep a “family secret.”
They learned early that silence was called loyalty. They carry truths heavier than their backpacks.
Photo by natureworks //Don’t let children get lost in this
Children harmed by someone everyone admired.
A coach. A teacher. A faith leader. A helper.
They noticed how praise wrapped around the person who hurt them and understood the danger of speaking.
Children who tried to tell once and were dismissed.
They were told they misunderstood. Exaggerated. Imagined it.
Many never tried again.
Children who were believed only partially.
Adults said, “Something happened,” but avoided saying what.
The child learned that clarity was too disruptive.
Children who learned the language of adults too early.
Not because they were mature, but because someone crossed a line and then explained it away.
Children who protect their parents from pain by staying quiet.
They carry the burden of keeping the household standing, even while breaking inside.
Children who live in communities where reputation outranks safety.
Where speaking truth risks exile.
Where silence is treated as righteousness.
Children who are disabled, chronically ill, or neurodivergent.
Their communication is questioned. Their credibility negotiated.
Predators notice this immediately.
Children who are Black, Indigenous, poor, immigrant, or otherwise adultified.
They are seen as “older,” “stronger,” “less innocent,” and therefore less protected.
Children who think, “It wasn’t bad enough to count.”
They compare their pain to others and decide theirs does not qualify for care.
Children who hear adults debating harm as theory.
They recognize their own story in the arguments and quietly note who deflects, who minimizes, who tells the truth.
Children who are waiting for the right time.
Not because they are weak, but because they are watching.
Timing is safety to them.

If a child is reading this now

You are not alone in carrying something unspoken.
What happened to you does not become smaller because it was hidden.
Adults discussing these truths are not doing it to scare you.
Some of them are trying to build a world where you are not forced to carry this by yourself forever.

You deserve protection that does not depend on silence.
You deserve adults who can hold truth without turning away.