Hello Smile, this morning the Today show discussed what children are learning considering what with the media portrays, and it is scary. As for our age group and abuse, you probably knew someone who was abused, yet she (he) never discussed it. No one would ever guess I endured an abusive childhood. Our generation did not discuss it! We had “duck and cover” drills in our classrooms in the sixties to protect us from bombing raids, but nothing about “stranger danger.” Not that it takes a stranger to commit a perverted act. The larger percentage of sexual assaults occur when the victim know the perpetrator. It is a little more likely that someone of your daughter’s generation will reveal than our generation. As for protection, that is one of the reasons I never had children: if I couldn’t protect myself from my own family, and I was grown! Then how could I protect a small child? The females of my family were not safe! My grandmother is 98. She knows my father abused me, and that my brother did too. She said, “How could your brother do that to you when I was watching you two all the time?” I felt I had to reassure her that she was not to blame for not protecting me, because I know she tried. My mother, on the other hand, could never have been accused of overt neglect, yet she was emotionally unavailable. My brother certainly does not have the persona to convey anything “weird.” He was an altar boy! A good student! Conscientious! Who would have thought? No one but his victims knew. We came from a high-profile, middle to upper class Catholic family. Abuse covers all ethnic and economic groups, all races, all classes. I recently read “Miss America By Day” by Marilyn Van Derber. She was crowned @1959, and was a victim of incest every single night. I wanted to be her at the time. The crown was “to die for.” Who would have thought that her extremely prominent father committed incest every night until she wanted to die. Her mother knew, turned, and walked the other way! Smile, your daughters can thank you because you are a physically and psychologically aware mother. And thank you for being able to discuss what their friends reveal.