3 Things to Teach Your Children About Safety
Guest Post:
Parents will always long to keep their children as safe as possible. Today, however, it seems like keeping children safe is an almost impossible task. Not only are there so many ways to get hurt, there are also too many people around who want to hurt them. This article will reveal some great ways to keep children safe, from strangers, from the water, and even from their own toys.
1. Water Safety
Image via Flickr by jinglejammer
You already know not to leave your children, under five years old, around any kind of water without supervision. This not only goes for pools, but also buckets, tubs and even toilets. However, as children age, many parents relax their guard. This is only safe to do if the child and parent practices safe habits around water.
For example, teaching your child to swim as early as possible is step in the right direction. If your child doesn’t know how swim, insist that they wear a life jacket every time they are anywhere near a body of water. This goes for a boat, a pool, a lake, and especially the ocean. Though the child might protest that it looks silly, it can save their life.
2. Toy BB Guns
Toy BB guns are popular among children. They are as American as apple pie. However, these types of toys need additional care to keep kids safe. Though only a toy gun, a BB gun is virtually indistinguishable form a real gun. It needs to be treated as if it were a real gun. That means teaching children to always treat it as if it is loaded and dangerous.
Additionally, the best way to carry a bb gun is a gun case or in a bag, just like they do with real guns. If you don’t need to travel with it, opt not to. Not only will this keep it from going off on accident, it will also keep you out of some legal trouble. There have many cases of a BB gun owner being cited for having a gun unsecured by officers who didn’t know that these were not real guns.
To keep you child extra safe when playing with a BB gun, consider a low velocity gun such as airsoft BB guns. These lower velocity guns shoot the bb’s out at a much slower rate. That eliminates most of the danger without subtracting any of the fun.
3. Stranger Danger
Most parents teach their children to be wary of strangers. Children usually know not to get into a car with one or accept their candy or other gifts. However, children should also know what to do in case of possible abduction. These basic survival skills include the right way to yell for help, squirming out of an attacker’s hands, running away, and telling a trusted adult.
A lot of abductors could be deterred if the child understands that appearances can be deceiving. The first thing the child should do is tell the stranger "no," then run away while yelling as loud as they can. They should then tell the nearest trusted adult about what happened.
It can be rough being a parent. Keeping kids safe is one of the most important jobs we do. However, with a little time, planning and care, we will be able to raise safety conscious kids, capable of keeping their own kids safe in the future.