As parents, you would love to keep your kids safe all the time from dangers but not the whole time your children are always by your side. Its time to teach them how to keep themselves safe when they are outside especially from strangers but not trying to terrified the strangers.
This maybe difficult as different individuals has different intuition and guts where it’s hard to teach a young toddler to use it. However, with a set of common rules, your children would definitely start to learn how to identify them. Ensure your children knows what strangers is since the vocabulary of the word can be tough for a young toddler to understand. Explain to them that strangers are anyone who they don’t know and despite how they look, they are still a stranger even if they look safe. Give them a few scenarios and examples of who are strangers and what they are capable of doing.
Some common rules are that, your children shouldn’t be going anywhere with the stranger or even get into the stranger’s car. Neither should they be taking food or candy or any gifts from the stranger. If the stranger has an animal in hand, tell your children not to pet it even if they are invited to. Remind them that they are still a kid and strangers will not ask help from them and in any cases if they are asked for help, ask your children to get away as fast as possible.
There are certain situations like when they are at home and a stranger turns up in front of the house, teach your children to stay away from the doors and windows. Ask them to get help from an adult to greet the visitor but in case the adult is busy in the washroom, ask the stranger to wait. Warn them not to tell the stranger that they are alone at home in any cases if there are no adults at home!
Remind them that if there’s anyone who ever make them feel uncomfortable, ask them to tell you or another trusted adult right away. Teach them to identify suspicious people and the type of people they shouldn’t greet or even look at them. Help them in differentiating strangers and their neighbors or friends in case they assume their neighbors and friends whom they aren’t familiar or close with are also considered as strangers.
It’s also ideal to send them for martial arts classes which can help them in self defense. Explain to them that if a stranger tries to take them, ask them to yell “No!” as loud as they can and fight as hard as they can to get loose and run to a public area to search for an adult whom can help them. Warn them not to walk in quiet passage alone and if they have to, ask them to run or walk through fast and be alert always.
Remind them also that when they are in the public area, always stay close to you and never wander off alone. To answer more of your children questions, conclude with explaining to them the consequences of not doing so which is being kidnapped and what could possibly happened to them after that. It will be no doubt that your children will instantly start to take caution of strangers though would be trying hard not to terrify the strangers!
