Friday, June 19, 2015

Five Ways to Protect Your Kids from Strangers



We don’t even need to open a newspaper to know kids and adults need to know about and practice defensive posture. Some of the guidelines I learned as a kid and then taught my kids still apply today, even though we’ve changed centuries and millenniums!

I saw a reminder asking parents to teach their kids police officers and firemen help them if they’re in trouble and in some cases, save their lives. It’s definitely a good point. Take the kids on a field trip this summer to meet the public servants who put their lives on the line to keep us safe 24 hours a day.

My dad explained the difference between friends and strangers. Friends are people that parents know and welcome to visit. Strangers are unknown or people they do not know very well, often for a good reason.

One grandma reminded me to play in safe areas and to stay away from alleys and empty houses. My other grandma told me if I wanted to walk somewhere, walk with a friend

Stay away from empty houses.


There are a lot of shortcuts in urban and rural areas. My Great-Grandma Foster told me to stick to the main streets when we walked over to see her and avoid empty lots. A shortcut through the meadow resulted in a huge nail through my foot with a 2 x 4 attached. I cried my way home, board and all, so mommy could help me. Mommy was not amused, but she did gather her friends around to help pull off the board, wash the wound, and bandage my foot. I got lectures, cookies and hugs. Hey, as Meatloaf said, “two out of three ain’t bad” – but it could have been.
 
Avoid shortcut through isolated areas.

Explain to your kids why they should never talk to strangers or accept a ride with someone they don’t know, even if their friend knows them. Most of the time, nothing happens if this guideline is ignored. My cousin Lee reminded me I didn’t want to be the exception to the rule. She worked at the juvenile detention center and told me just enough of the horror stories she encountered to keep me following this good advice.

Kids hitch a ride in pre-1923 Toronto.   

What are some of the rules you learned as a kid that you teach or demonstrate today?

30 comments:

  1. It is definitely something that I worry about with my kids. I can only hope that I've done enough to prepare them.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I learned all of these, and I teach them, as well. We live in a close knit community, so strangers are few and far between.

    ReplyDelete
  3. yes! Teaching the difference is important. At Disney, only talk to people with a real Disney name tag!

    ReplyDelete
  4. One thing we learned was never open the door for a stranger. I taught my son the same. He won't even open the door for the UPS guy.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Walking with a friend is good advice. So is not taking shortcuts!

    ReplyDelete
  6. I am a grown woman and still do most of these things. Reminders about basic safety tips is a good idea for all ages.

    ReplyDelete
  7. I tell my kids not to talk to strangers, be aware of your surroundings, stay together... I think you can only hope that you have done everything you can to prepare them for the "real world".

    ReplyDelete
  8. My daughter actually told me to set up a password, so if any strangers tried to talk to her saying they knew me, they'd have to say the password first. I thought it was a great idea!

    ReplyDelete
  9. I talk to my kids all the time about stranger danger. We have a secret password that an adult has to tell them to know they are on the level.

    ReplyDelete
  10. I learned and try to teach our kids to follow their gut instinct about places and people. I do my best to try to teach them there are more nice people in the world than bad, it is the bad that we hear more about though, which is sad.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Teaching your children about strangers is definitely a Must Do. These are some great tips on things to teach them.

    ReplyDelete
  12. I think the most important thing is that sometimes it may be a casual friend... Always set up to call parent if they say thy are to pick you up.

    ReplyDelete
  13. I agree that this is such an important point to stress with one's children. We try to talk about it with our boys without terrifying them.

    ReplyDelete
  14. I think back in horror sometimes of how free we seemed to be when we were kids, in the world of no cellulars and long hours without contact while out playing. I would freak if I couldn't reach my kid!

    ReplyDelete
  15. YES. These are all so important. I make sure to constantly inform my kids and remind them of all these things. You cant ever be too safe, or careful.. ever. - Jeanine

    ReplyDelete
  16. Walking with a friend is so important! I've been stressing "Stranger Danger" since birth!

    ReplyDelete
  17. We have been teaching kiddo about Stranger Danger since she was a kid. She has a bad habit of getting ahead of us sometimes and we have to tell her that just because we live in a safe town doesnt mean bad things cant happen and when we go to the bigger cities she needs to stay with is.

    ReplyDelete
  18. We're probably over cautious, but you can never be too careful with kids and strangers.

    ReplyDelete
  19. Teaching your kids about the dangers of strangers is very important. Better safe than sorry!

    ReplyDelete
  20. You can never be too cautious with your kids! You never know what kind of creeps are around!

    ReplyDelete
  21. My kids are bigger, so for them I require that they have their phones with them, and that the phones are all charged up.
    We use Life360, a family locator app, so if I need, we can always see where we all are.

    ReplyDelete
  22. I need to do a better job of keeping my kids stranger danger aware.

    ReplyDelete
  23. What's interesting about this is that most kids picture a stranger to be like Darth Vadar when used in the 'don't talk to strangers' context. We all talk to strangers daily in reality. In my kids preschool they told them 'adults really never need help from kids' related to situations where ill-intended adults try to lure kids into unsafe situations with tactics such as 'can you help me find my puppy? '

    ReplyDelete
  24. Great tips, it's so hard these days so I'm always looking for ways to switch it up. These tips will come in handy.

    ReplyDelete
  25. This is definitely important in this day and age...it seems like it scarier because of technology. Definitely always stick with a buddy dont do things alone and dont talk to strangers online or give your number away!

    ReplyDelete
  26. When my kids were little i taught them all about stranger danger. I always tell my kids if they are walking to be sure to stick to the well lit streets.

    ReplyDelete
  27. I remember teaching my kids about stranger danger. Staying on populated and well lit streets, rather than alleyways or dark streets is a big must!

    ReplyDelete
  28. I was always told to go by my gut and if I felt like I need to run to do it. I also passed that down to my kids among other stuff

    ReplyDelete
  29. My parents taught me to never talk to strangers and run if I ever felt uncomfortable.

    ReplyDelete
  30. Great tips, it is a shame we have to worry so much but we do, it's the world we live in

    ReplyDelete