Check in – and check in afterwards. Verbally express what you want. Back off at “I don’t know,” don’t push.

Exactly Emma. And that's what I taught my son in his early teens... And the problem is, our culture generally has the attitude that people have to put up with certain things - that they're not entitled to set their own boundaries.

TRIGGER WARNING

The 'don't walk in the dark' advice gives me the creeps. It means you make decisions to stay where you shouldn't, because you are told it is more dangerous to be alone.

When I was 15 I had a friend stay the night,and my brother, his friends and I had a bit of a party (yes, we were drinking). In the morning she was gone. I phoned her and berated her for having walked home to a less than salubrious part of Mt Roskill on her own in the dark at 3am.

It was only 20 years later that she told me that she ran home after one of my brother's friends had sex with her. Without her consent. He raped her.

And among my group of girlfriends, this scenario is most commonly is how rape happens.

So, do we tell our daughters not to go to trusted friend's places?? Or do we tell our sons not to rape??

Tears in my eyes. Thanks Emma, for writing such perfect words for this. THIS.

Your last paragraph ; YES!!

Anyone else like me wondering if the British government will be cheering the timing given the deplorable state of the economy... Will it boost the economy or just mask its dire state?