Teaching Kids About Personal Safety

     Keeping our kids safe and protected is one of our top priorities as parents. If you are like me, you can totally go down a rabbit hole thinking about all the ways harm can come to your child. But with a little proactivity, you can rest easier knowing your child has been armed with appropriate knowledge and skills.

Babies and toddlers

• General home safety should be an everyday part of living with babies and toddlers. Talk with and teach them about items around the house that are hot, sharp, breakable and so on. Be sure to warn your child of the dangers of climbing on furniture, such as shelves and dressers. Heavy or unstable items must be secured to the wall too.
• Teach your child from an early age about car seat and seat belt safety. As you are buckling your children for a car ride, talk to them about why and how you are buckling them and that you are doing the same thing too! From a young age, our kids have always called out from the back “Seat belt, Dad!” if he starts backing out of the driveway without his on!
• Street safety is important to teach early on as well. Even when our kids were babies in the stroller, we talked about street safety on walks. As we approached a corner, stoplight or stop sign, we spoke aloud about how we stop, look both ways and appropriately cross the street or wait for the signals.
• Once children are mobile, you will want to begin teaching safe ways to get around the house. “I started teaching safety skills to my son as soon as he started rolling over. I showed him the safe way to get off the bed, couch and up and down the stairs,” Ale Garcia, a North Kansas City mom of one. “I give him a lot of independence when doing so to make sure he understands the risks, but I also make sure I am there to avoid any major injuries. He is 15 months now, and it has really helped to teach him safety skills but also let him figure out the natural consequences of not being cautious—with supervision of course!”

Preschool

• Preschool children need to know their name, address and phone number. You can quiz them at dinner, in the bath or before bed. We used to put a sticky note by our son’s bed with the info for him to look at and practice on his own. YouTube also has fun little tunes for learning addresses and phone numbers.
• As preschoolers get more curious and aware of their own bodies, it is a great time to reiterate and reteach the privacy of their bodies. Include in your conversation that no one should ever try to touch, look at or take pictures of their bodies, and no one should ever ask them to do those things either.
• Teach your children if they are lost to stay put and yell your first name. Maggie Moffitt, an Olathe mom of two, says, “We talk about what other people call Mommy and Daddy, so if he were ever lost, he would know our real names.”
• It is important to teach your child about “tricky people” and that an adult should never ask a child for help (e.g., to find their dog, for directions). Let your child know never to accept things given to her by a stranger or to go anywhere with a stranger. Encourage your child to get away quickly and find a trusted adult.

Elementary

• By now your child knows to call 911 and what to do in case of a fire. Sarah Gulledge, a Leawood mom of three, shares a crucial tip: “I taught our son when he was 6 how to bypass the password on my cell phone to call 911. No one has a landline these days, and it’s tricky to call from a cell phone.” Lenexa mom of two Kristen Potter shares their family plan: “We have a set meeting place during a fire. The kids know to get out and go to the neighbor’s driveway, so we know where to find them.”
• Being in Kansas, many of the seasons here involve water in some way, be it a lake, river or pool. Water safety is key, as many neighborhood pools don’t have lifeguards anymore, and children are more confident than ever it seems. Don’t assume because they are confident—and maybe even a skilled swimmer—that they are safe. Never allow your child to swim alone and always make sure there is supervision. We take our kids on trails often in the winter and have to teach them about frozen lakes and ponds too!
• MomJunction.com explains one of their 10 rules for children like this: “If I am uncomfortable, I will not do it.” This is a great all-encompassing phrase to share with your children for any situation they might encounter. It could be as simple as changing clothes in front of friends to go swimming, or as complicated as someone offering your child a cigarette. Teach your kids to listen to their inner gut feelings and, if uncomfortable for any reason, to get out immediately.
• Digital citizenship, which refers to the responsible use of technology, starts really early these days. You will need to teach your child specifically about using devices responsibly, set up boundaries and rules, and go over internet safety. “I recently took a picture of my daughter that she was unhappy with because of her appearance. She begged us to delete it and not post it. I never had any intention of posting it, but this led to a great conversation about not posting things that could embarrass or hurt other people’s feelings. And what one person may find funny could really hurt someone else’s feelings,” shares Rae Ann McDaniel, Olathe mom of two.

     You don’t have to set aside time for a safety lesson each day to check these tips off your list, but rather look to weave them in throughout your days and weeks. Find natural opportunities for teaching safety and remember, what is listed here is only a small snippet of what to teach and how to teach it ... you’ll find your comfort zone and your own way!

Books for Teaching Safety

• The Berenstain Bears Learn About Strangers
• Good Pictures, Bad Pictures by Kristen Jenson
• Good Pictures, Bad Pictures Jr. by Kristen Jenson
• I Said No! by Kimberly and Zack King
• I Won’t Go with Strangers by Dagmar Geisler
• Some Secrets Should Never Be Kept by Jayneen Sanders
• Once Upon a Dragon by Jean Pendziwol
• Stop, Drop, and Roll by Margery Cuyler

Julie Collett writes from Overland Park and is a mom of four. Safety lessons are ongoing in her house on a daily basis!