My guest today is Sara Ernst. Sara is a nature lover, a singer, a musician, an artist, a poet and a writer. She is the whole package! She is a wife and mom too, and lives with her family in Virginia. 

A childhood experience with a tricky person, her love of music and wanting to help protect kids all unexpectedly led her to write a song and a book that teaches and equips young children to use their voice to protect themselves. Her book, her music and her work are fantastic and so helpful to many families. You are going to come away with so many practical, helpful tips for keeping your kids safe from tricky people. I am really glad to have Sara on the show today! 

Some links from today’s show: 

Visit Sara’s website here 

Follow Sara on Instagram here 

Find Sara’s music here 

Find Sara’s book, Shout No! here 

Download the Shout No song and coloring sheet here 

Find Sara’s book, Poetry for the Wild and Curious Ones, here 

Find Greta’s book here 

Some of my favorite quotes from today’s episode: 

*”Parents don’t want to talk to their kids about tricky people because they want to protect their kid’s innocence. But we have to tell our kids that tricky people exist so we can give them to tools to protect themselves from the tricky people.” Greta Eskridge  

*”I wanted to write something gentle yet effective that would equip kids from an early age and would give the words to shout no and run away from tricky people.” Sara Ernst 

*”We can react to our experiences by simply moving on, or we can let them fester and turn to bitterness or shame or we can say, “I wish that wouldn’t have happened, but I’m going to do something positive with it now.” Greta Eskridge 

*”When we tell our kids not to cross the street without us we don’t go into graphic details about what can happen if they get hit by a car. We just tell them, “you could get hurt” because that is all they need to know. It is the same with giving our kids information about predators. We don’t give them scary information; we give them empowering information.” Greta Eskridge 

*”Music is sticky!” Sara Ernst 

*“Teach your kids that anyone can be a tricky person, because most abuse happens with people the children know. And teach them how to respond to tricky people.” Sara Ernst 

*” We are empowering our kids not making them afraid.” Greta Eskridge