Talking about safety
While none of us as parents want to think of our children being unsafe or at risk, Namola published this article encouraging parents to teach our children to protect themselves and as a school, it is our responsibility to pass this information onto our parent body.
As parents, we do everything in our power to ensure that our children stay safe. We have to educate and empower our children to be aware of predators: how to spot them, how to report them and how to stop bad things happening to children.
There are certain safety tips and warning signs that parents can teach their children.
Talk to your children, keeping in mind their age when discussing the topic of safety. You want to protect them rather than scare them. From an early age it is important to keep calm and open when it comes to communicating with your child, as the way that you approach them will ultimately determine whether or not they share important information with you.
Be cautious on teaching your child about “stranger danger”.
A helpful tip is to tell your child that if they need assistance, they should look for a mother with kids.
Cautioning young children especially about strangers can cause them to think of predators as scary monsters. A predator will look like anyone else and they can approach a child in a friendly manner. Once they introduce themselves or claim to be a friend of a parent, they may no longer be a stranger in your child’s eyes. It is also important to remember that there may be times when it is important for your child to speak to a stranger. It is important for your child to know the right stranger to talk to. A helpful tip is to tell your child that if they need assistance, they should look for a mother with kids.
We teach children to listen to adults and not to be disruptive, but there are times they should disobey and be loud.
It’s a good idea to practice this with your kids. Give them a scenario and have them practice saying no firmly and loudly, screaming, and running away.
Children have great instincts. Remind them that if somebody, a situation or place makes them feel uncomfortable, they should remove themselves from it immediately.
Know who to call.
If children are old enough, Teach them how to use Namola, an emergency contact app, which will automatically alert five emergency contacts. No child should ever be made to feel unsafe and by having these conversations with our children, we hope to teach children to speak up and in this way be safe.
“As much as we watch to see what our children will do with their lives, they are watching to see what we will do with ours. I can’t tell my children to reach for the sun. All I can do is reach for it myself”