Teach Your Child To Be Safe – Part One

Why our children need to experience freedom

Once we have had children our lives will never be the same again, and for a multitude of reasons. One of the greatest stresses of being a parent is the worry; we worry about our children’s progress, their health, their happiness and most of all we worry about their safety and it’s not just about protecting them from the usual dangers such as deep water, fast cars and heights. We also have to worry about protecting our children from other people who may have questionable intentions.

This worry may be part of being a parent but maybe we need to teach our children about hidden dangers without instilling high levels of fear because despite our anxiety the thing we want most for our beloved offspring is that they experience and enjoy life with all its ups and downs and inherent dangers.

What will our child miss out on if we are overly cautious?

An overly protected child could miss out on many different things, unless, of course, you have a particularly large garden. One of the greatest things that children can miss out on is gaining a sense of adventure and doing normal kid stuff that we all used to do before the media made us petrified. Things like:

• Riding their bikes around the neighbourhood with loads of other kids.
• Climbing trees
• Building dens
• Playing ball games at the park
• Mixing with other kids outside of school hours.

The effects of having a restricted childhood could be far reaching:

• Your child could grow up to be nervous around other people, particularly strangers, which may make school life and, in later years, working life fraught with fear and insecurity.
• Less physical activity may direct your child towards a sedentary lifestyle which, in turn, could lead to related health problems such as childhood obesity.
• You child will have fewer opportunities to make independent decisions and use their own natural judgement – we may be limiting their mistakes but we will, in turn, be limiting their problem-solving skills too.
• Less free outdoor time will also mean missing out on the mental benefits of having space to breathe and think clearly.

So how do we allow our children to enjoy a natural and adventurous life?

We need to teach our young children some basic safety skills and always enforce the rules. These rules can be adjusted and extended as your child grows older:

The rules can cover anything you want to, but at the very least should incorporate:

• No leaving the front garden/street/local neighbourhood – your child needs to know where he or she lives and your telephone/mobile number and if they are too young to memorise these facts then they are too young to leave your garden.
• You need to know where they are going, with whom and for how long – never forget that you are the one in charge of home-time. If they are going to play at the home of a friend you need the home number of this friend.
• There is greater safety in numbers so no wandering around alone.
• No chatting to strangers. Although the threat from strangers is relatively rare your child needs to know that it does exist:
  • They must never go anywhere with someone they don’t know.
  • Never approach strange cars or accept gifts.
  • If they feel worried for any reason they need to know where to go – the police station, a trusted friend, school or even a familiar shop.

Knowing the boundaries and ground rules will help your child to be safe but they must be taught that these rules are fixed and non-negotiable. Once they have proved that they understand the basics then they can move onto the next small freedoms. This will help lay the foundations for making smarter decisions in the future, as they grow older and are more frequently out of sight.