A safe environment for children

For part two of my article on child safety, I will discuss safety in the child’s environment.

As parents or caregivers, we can’t be around kids 24 hours a day to keep them safe so we need to teach them some basic information to keep them safe.

If your kids are going to a park to play, on the way to the mall, or going to or from school, tell them to never use the back lane as a shortcut.

One reason is because someone could be hiding there waiting to harm the child.

Another reason has to do with fences in people’s yards. If your child had to run from danger, they wouldn’t be able to cut through someone’s yard to get away, or if necessary, to go to someone’s house to have them call for help. Also, quite a few of the fences are much taller than the child.

Also, if a child was running from danger and was yelling out for help, no one would be able to see where they were if the child was in the back lane.

If your child is walking anywhere, try to get him or her to walk with other kids in a group. A lone child can be a vulnerable target, but a group of kids is a deterrent.

Always try to know your child’s basic plans for the day and be familiar with the route the child likes to take. If you have friends or family in that area, establish a “safe house” that the child can go to if they don’t feel safe.

Make sure your friends and family get in contact with you should your child need to go to their house and be sure to follow up with your child as to what happened.

If there was an incident to cause them to be scared, and they needed to use the “safe house,” this may be something that needs to be reported to the police, as it could affect the safety of other children in that area.

As parents and caregivers, we must always encourage our children to talk to us about their safety and we should become involved in sharing ideas with them. Getting to know your child’s friends and some of their routines is all a part of raising them safely.