Child Safety: Strategies to Help Keep Kids Safe and Make Parents' Lives Easier.
Balancing family and work responsibilities can be challenging for most families. Parents often find themselves running late to pick up their preschool children due to work demands and deadlines. In such situations, parents may need to find a safe adult to pick up their children, even if the children are not familiar with them. To make things easier for parents, I have included strategies to help keep kids safe and navigate meeting children's needs, helping to make parents' and children's lives easier.
Teaching children about child safety
Parents should educate their children about safety around adults and emphasise that just because someone is an adult or has spoken to them, it does not automatically make them a safe person to be alone with or to pick them up from school. Practising scenarios with children, such as getting separated from parents at the shops or being approached by a stranger at a park and asking for their help in finding their lost puppy; can help them understand how to react. Children should be taught to find a shop assistant, have a safe meeting place in case they become separated, never leave the area, know their parents' phone numbers, and inform the stranger that they need to let their parents know before they can help, even if the stranger claims to have spoken to their parents.
Important Phone Numbers
It is important for children to remember their parents' phone numbers. Parents can implement their own easy-to-view and remember phone number games for children that work within their family units. One that I personally found useful was displaying my phone number using magnetic numbers on the fridge, allowing my children to visually view and recite the number regularly. Remember to keep it simple and easy, one phone number at a time until they are able to recite with ease. Implementing this practice and making it fun not only helps children remember their parents' phone numbers but also serves as a reminder to discuss safety around adults.
Creating a safe word
Creating a safe word can further protect children and let them know that they have permission to be around a specific adult. The safe word should be easy to say and can be something as simple as their favourite Disney character, a popular TV show, or a pleasant/easy word, for example, "Olaf," "Sponge-bob," or "Butterfly." Parents should encourage adults who pick up their children to use the safe word, even if they know them well. This can help stop children from being confused about when to ask for the safe word, along with building independence, confidence, and responsibility in their child to always check for themselves and ask the tricky questions. Parents can always check in with the adult who picked up their child to see if they asked for the safe word and congratulate their child for asking, encouraging them to always be vigilant of their safety. Changing the safe word once it has been used is also important to maintain security.
While it can be a scary world out there when parents cannot always be in two places at once, implementing these strategies can help alleviate the pressure of keeping young children safe while meeting work demands. By teaching children about child safety, memorising parents' phone numbers, and creating a safe word, parents can help ensure their children's safety and foster independence and confidence in them.