Parent to Parent: Talking to your kids about boundaries

Parent to Parent - Discussing boundaries with your children

FOX 26 Anchor Rashi Vats speaks with a parenting psychologist about crucial lessons as young as two years old in light of the video surfacing of the Dalai Lama seen kissing a young boy.

HOUSTON - Controversial video of the Dalai Lama asking a young boy to suck his tongue continues to plague parents. Every parent wants to protect their child, but how do we do it when the ‘good guys’ we think we can trust don’t always hold up to that title?

Earlier this month a young boy approached the 87-year-old Dalai Lama for a hug at an event in India. The Dalai Lama then asks the boy to "kiss him on the lip", as he pulls the boy’s chin towards him with his lips puckered. Then he asks the young boy to "suck his tongue."

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"Who else is disgusted about the news about the Dalai Lama? I have this pit in my stomach," said Tejal V. Patel, who is a parenting coach and mother, on Instagram.

I spoke with her after seeing her video on Instagram. She told me, "I felt deep sadness because I could feel not just the sadness of the boy, you could feel the collective sadness and confusion that we are feeling right now."

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She gave advice to us saying, "For anyone who watched the video, this is a person in power. Someone that we revere. It almost creates a blur in the line of did that little boy feel safe enough to say no because he is in front of a crowd. We have been teaching ourselves, and our parents have been teaching us, it is better to be polite than to be rude, but is that at the expense of our own boundaries. We have to be really clear about that."

Parent to Parent: Talking about children's boundaries

FOX 26 Anchor Rashi Vats has more in this edition of Parent to Parent.

Parenting Psychologist Dr. Reena B. Patel agrees and says teaching your kids about consent as young as two years old is key.

"A child, no matter what. At the age of 2, can really start to learn and learn how to ask permission when adults around them want to touch. The way we do this is start by modeling it in your house," said Dr. Patel. "When you think about adults specifically adults in a specific position. Whether it’s religious, spiritual, we tend to look at them as role models, and they can do no wrong. When we have children that is what they are taught when they are young. Whatever they say goes. When the actuality is we want to take this back and let the children know that they are boss of their own bodies. When their little fire alarm, radar, internal system says this doesn’t feel right, they need to act on it."

The Dalai Lama did apologize, but celebrities like Cardi B responding telling parents to "Constantly talk with your kids about boundaries and what they shouldn’t allow people to do to them."

Join me on Tuesday, April 25 at 6:30 p.m. on FOX26Houston.com for our Parent to Parent live stream with Dr. Patel on important steps to take with your child in order to make sure they can be as safe as possible in any given environment.