Care and Feeding: How to talk to your children about false sexual assault allegations

A family member was falsely accused of sexual assault.

He lost his job, home, and many of his friends.

His accuser was caught on tape threatening another man and saying she’d made up the allegations.

How do you talk to your kids about this? Tell them the truth: Most sexual assault allegations are true, but in rare instances, there are false ones.

Dear Care and Feeding: Ask your daughter to interrogate her feelings towards her classmates.

Explain to her that there are cultural differences between various groups of people.

Urge her to be empathetic, and ask her to consider how challenging it must be for these kids to be the only Black students in the class.

Your sister's father has put her in an impossible situation, and this is going to be painful for her no matter what happens.

She needs someone she can talk to openly who understands her and supports her.

Her relationship with her father has been forever changed, but ultimately, this is a situation of his doing (again).