You should always be physically safe around adults. They should not harm you physically or emotionally on purpose. They should do their best to protect you from someone who is trying to hurt you. They should not touch you on your body like a boyfriend or girlfriend might. They should not talk to you or treat you like a boyfriend or girlfriend in any way. In fact, adults should not really act like they are your “friend” either. You should really different when you are with your friends your own age than when you are around adults. If an adult ever says, “I’m your friend,” that might be something to think about.

Adults should treat you with kindness. This doesn’t mean that they will give you everything you want. But, it does mean that you should feel like they care about you. They should not intentionally talk or act in a mean way towards you. They should not call you names or put you down. There’s no reason for an adult to curse at you or use foul language in conversation with you. This will vary depending on your culture, but you should not feel like someone is using “bad” words towards you in an angry way.

Adults should be following the rules of the school, church, sports program and the laws of your region. They should make sure that you and other kids are following the rules too. It wouldn’t be a good idea if adults were letting you break rules sometimes or all of the time. Rules are there for a reason and they are meant to keep everyone safe. This includes following the regular schedule, the rules of the school, the grading system, scoring system, etc.

Adults should treat all the kids with equity. You should feel like all the adults are fair about the rules, consequences, rewards, etc. That doesn’t mean that everything will be exactly the same for everyone, because some kids need individualized attention or a different approach,However, adults should not be “playing favorites” with one or more kids in a school or program. No one feels good when that is happening.