As a parent, I can barely bring myself to acknowledge and think about the fact that there are people out there in this world that would hurt my children. But the fact is true, and it is cruel, and it must be reckoned with. I know that talking to my son Joshua, who is almost five, about safety and “stranger danger” is extremely important. One day I started to broach the subject with him and before getting very far into it at all, I could see that he was becoming frightened. He is very, very innocent and also tends to be fearful in general. So how do I talk to him about child safety without scaring the poor kid to death?
Luckily for me, tomorrow I am going to be on a conference call with an expert, and I am going to ask her just that. Her name is Nancy McBride, and she is the Safety Director of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. The NCMEC has teamed up with Duracell for the third year to offer the Power of Parents child safety program.
The Power of Parents exists to achieve the goal of helping parents prepare, protect and empower their children by providing useful safety tools and information for families. The Power of Parents program web site contains a variety of important FREE safety tools for families to download, including the new Child Safety Handbook. Before I talk to Nancy tomorrow, I am going to head over to the Power of Parents site and download the Child Safety Handbook, a storybook to read with Joshua, and their age-specific “Teachable Moments Guide.” I suggest you all head on over there and do the same!
I’m excited to ask my question of Nancy McBride tomorrow – and I’ll ask YOURS for you too! Leave me a comment with YOUR child safety question and I will ask it for you! Then I’ll report back on what I’ve learned later in the week and let you know how she answered.
This issue is too important for me to ignore any longer, and I believe the same is true for many of you. So head over to the Power of Parents, check it out, and leave me a comment with your question for Nancy. Let’s teach our children what they need to know to protect themselves!
this has nothing to do w/ your current post, but thanks for the kroger link. i may try to wade through this tonight. not sure if i’ll make it to kroger tomorrow night. although i may need a reason to get out and escape election night coverage. (plus i may be jealous as you school me in the coupon department.) 🙂
It is so scary, I know. We are always very open & realistic with our kids, but I often worry about how to talk to them about people that AREN’T strangers like Sunday School teachers and teachers at school? Aren’t the statistics that a child is more likely to be harmed by someone they KNOW?
Steph
I’m looking forward to hearing back about what you learn. On a related note, my daughter is very frightened about the break-in we had. I would be very interested in knowing how to ease her fears now that something bad has actually occurred. I don’t have good answers for a lot of her questions.
Yes, we must be cautious and careful – but I refuse to live in fear and worry, you know? They have a heavenly Father that watches out for them (and me!) better than I ever could.
There is a good story in one of Sean’s Pooh compendium books about not talking to strangers. He tells me all the time at stores “Mummy, you should never talk to strangers”…
I’d love to hear what response you get…Ashlyn had police visit the school today and show a video. (they didn’t tell us this in advance) In the video they showed a kid get taken by a “stranger” out at a public place….Ashlyn doesn’t want to leave the house now and wouldn’t even get more than 2 inches from me in our front yard!!! I think that was a bit much for 4 year olds. The police also told them there are bad people who take stuff from Meijer….did they have to get that specific? I’m never going to get her into Meijer again!! She is truely freaked and I’m not sure how to calm her down AND make her cautious!
We used a couple of books, but that is actually the question I am going to ask tomorrow. How to walk the line between being thorough in warning my children without scaring the crap out of them.
I will briefly share a safety issue that I have encountered and may be overlooked by many parents. I have had a parent of a child in my son’s class be a convicted child rapist. Yes, a MOTHER, who pled guilty to raping a 13 year old girl on several occasions was a presence in my son’s school. I found out about her guilty plea in our local paper, the day before she was the party mom for the 2nd grade class and a month after she held a birthday party in her home for the entire class.
She remained in our school for pick-ups, parties and presentations thru the rest of the year, until she was sentenced and sent to jail. There was nothing we could do about it, there is no law that prevents her being in schools in PA, and no condition of her bail prevented her from being around children.
I have since found out that this is more common that you would think. A friend with a son at aneighboring school found out thru a newspaper article that one of the moms on her class helper list is listed on Megan’s List. I have written to my congressman, my superintendent, and my local paper. They picked up the story and it ran as a front page article.
There are many other nuances to this story, but I am posting this to encourage you to be aware, and to find out the laws in your state.