Keeping your kids safe

PARENTS, the main reason you have to be ‘on the ball’ where your children are concerned is because they are constantly exposed to danger and they are vulnerable. If you don’t take the time to teach them valuable lessons in life, they would not know how to react at the crucial time when they need to have their wits about them and could be enticed, fooled and/or led astray by those of bad intent.

Here are some tips to help you to help your child stay safe:

1) Always communicate with your child when he or she returns home from any venture. Ask pertinent questions that allow you to paint a picture of what took place. Listen without interrupting. If there is something you disapprove of, or are concerned about, continue to speak calmly without a sense of alarm. Strive to maintain a reasonable level of parental concern within your child’s life, as this will encourage your child to confide in you, and you will get the opportunity to put your child on the right track. If you shout or become angry at anything your child says, he or she may ‘clam up’ and desist from telling you things in the future that he or she thinks may annoy you. If this happens, you will never get a clear picture of what goes on when your child is not in your care, but a mere tainted rendition of what he or she believes you want to hear.

2) Teach your child ‘road sense.’ So many young children walk to and from school without adult supervision, and during their journey, they are exposed to so many things. The streets are always filled with one sort of drama or another, and children take all of it in. How does the environment to which they are exposed affect them? Children need adults to consistently teach them a sense of wrong from right, and good from bad; to explain to them to keep walking and not to get involved when there is commotion or a fracas in the street, and how and where to seek help if needed. There are many elements of danger for children alone on the streets, therefore, children must be street-wise. Being street-wise is crossing the road at the right place and not fooling around with friends near heavy traffic. It is also about not taking things (money, gifts) from strangers, or ‘straying’ about the place and ending up in strange people’s homes.

3) The best way to instill a sense of responsibility and level-headedness in your child is to build a relationship, whereby the child is allowed to think for him or herself. Parents tend to reprimand children by talking down to them, admonishing them, scolding them or embarrassing them, when all that really needs to exist between parent and child is a mutual understanding and respect. This means helping a child to see and understand where he or she went wrong, and the consequences of his or her actions. The child must work things out, with parental guidance, and when it makes sense to the child, he or she will not repeat the action. All children make mistakes or do things that are somewhat out of character; it is part and parcel of growing up, and/or stretching boundaries. Children subconsciously check for their parents’ love and attention by doing ‘silly’ or ‘naughty’ things. Many times, they simply do not know how to express the varied emotions they are experiencing.

As adults, we simply need to be watchful, attentive and alert where children are concerned each day. Every gesture, every smile, every look, every word we exchange with them can help them grow into better-rounded individuals; as adults, we have that influence, and we need to use it wisely.
If you are concerned about the welfare of a child, ring the CPA hotline on 227 0979
A MESSAGE FROM THE CHILDCARE AND PROTECTION AGENCY, MINISTRY OF SOCIAL PROTECTION

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