Parents are responsible for teaching almost everything to their children before adolescence including warning signs for stranger safety. Teenage is quite a vulnerable yet opportunistic time for them as they love to learn new things, experience life, and most importantly enjoy whatever they do. However, in this phase, parents need to be the most vigilant. Ensuring stranger safety is a challenge every parent faces. Here, we share with you some handy tips for your child’s safety.
What to Teach Kids about Stranger Safety?
Children have a distinct quality. They are innocent and sweet by nature. Though it is good for your child to be subtle, making him smarter by teaching some safety-related facts can protect his innocence. This is because some people can take advantage of your child’s sweet nature and harm him.
No, restricting your child from going out alone is not the key to protecting him. You need to teach your kids the difference between an approachable person and a stranger. Here are some amazing and easy ideas to make children understand safety without being wary of everyone they meet.
Step 1: Defining Strangers
The apt stranger danger awareness begins with an introduction of the word stranger to your kids. The simple definition of a stranger is the one you and your family don’t know and you haven’t seen or interacted with before. A lot of parents make their children familiar with the figure of a stranger by pointing out the villains and ugly-looking characters they see on TV.
This is something very wrong. Even pretty strangers can harm your children by talking to them in a polite tone. The right way is to help the children analyze the behavior of people they come across. If someone behaves suspiciously, it is better to keep a distance from such an unknown person.
Step 2: Defining Good Strangers
Not every person your children meet is bad. Moreover, these good people can be of great use when your child is in trouble outside. This is why you must help your children differentiate between good and bad strangers too.
Good strangers can be police officers, teachers, firefighters, and security guards present in public places. Teach your children that such strangers are okay to trust and can be approached for rescue in public areas.
Step 3: Draw a line To Unacceptable Things
Though you don’t have to scare your child, it is essential to point out some things they strictly cannot fall for. These things include:
- Never enter the house of a stranger.
- Don’t accompany strangers to non-crowded places even if they seek help.
- Don’t eat anything offered by a stranger.
- Avoid discussing family-related or personal information with unknown people.
Step 4: Teach Them to Follow Their Instincts
This is one of the most important parts of teaching kids about stranger danger. Your child needs to have good decision-making power to be safe. Ask your child to follow the gut feeling. Moreover, make sure you teach your child that whosoever makes him feel uncomfortable is surely a bad stranger.
These were some main stranger danger safety tips that your child must know. However, there are a few things that even the parents need to be careful about, including:
- Make sure you know where your child is.
- Make it a rule to not step out without permission.
- Keep the phone numbers of your child’s friends or their parents in the record for emergencies.
Lastly, ask your children to be in the crowd and play with other children. The more people, the less danger there would be.
