Viral video teaches must-have vocabulary for kids to enforce their own boundaries

How many times have I raced in from another room to see my kids bickering and yelling — “he won’t get out of my face!” Now, there’s a song for that. As a mom of five, it just became mandatory viewing ahead of long winter Saturdays playing inside with the siblings. It names what parents like me haven’t been able to, sometimes — how to enforce boundaries in kid-friendly languages with specific examples.

“I am learning to set healthy boundaries,” the video asserts at the start. The song was created by educator Joanna Pace and songwriter Matt Pace at Hopscotch Kids.

The song’s 3.7M views show just how much parents needed this consolidated lesson on helping their kids set and observe their boundaries and others. The video depicts multiple scenarios that kids might encounter, and teaches them to realize a boundary is being crossed, and that they can and should do something about it. These include:

• Someone hugging or kissing them if they don’t want to
• Being in the presence of someone doing or saying something that makes them feel “hurt or gross” or “feel unsafe”
• Teasing, tickling, standing too close, high fives, handshakes, etc.

“Your feelings are important no matter your size,” the video says. It empowers kids to try using phrases to enforce their boundaries. Help your kids with the video practice saying:

• Please stop
• I don’t like that
• I’m feeling uncomfortable
• I need more space
• Not around me

It also reminds kids to ask before they do something to others, and helps them to see when someone else is uncomfortable with their own actions too. 

After showing my kids this video, especially the older three at ages 8,7, and 5, I realized that they didn’t even know what the word boundaries meant. Now they do.