Safety for our Little Sweethearts!
Tiny pink and red hearts, paper valentines with cars, animals and your kids favorite cartoon character (who knew Sponge Bob could be sentimental!) February is all about our sweethearts! What a great time to talk safety to your sweethearts (young and old!). It can be as simple as making sure that your kids know how special they are to you and the other caring adults in their life! Strong confident kids who feel valued by their parents and caregivers are less likely to fall prey to predators. Make sure your kids are getting attention from YOU so that they do not seek out attention from others. Here are some tips to help you show the love and keep your family safe!
Tips for all ages:
Read a safety book with your child:
Spending time with your child is good for both of you! Find ways in the car, a few minutes while making dinner, at the dinner table or before bedtime to see how their day was. Open ended questions such as "what was the best part of your day?" Or "What was the toughest part of your day?" will help build a strong communication with you and your child and help them open up about issues that they may be facing.
Send a note in their lunch box or backpack. It could be something as simple as a smiley face on a post it or simple words of encouragement "good luck on your test today!".
Check in with their teacher and find out what successes your child had over the week. Celebrate those good comments with your child. This lets both the teacher and the child know that you are involved and paying attention to what is happening in their world.
Tips for those sometimes hard to "reach" tweens and teens:
The Millennials "Gen Y" (born between 1978 – 1999) are an incredibly technologically savvy generation. Texting, IM-ing and e-mail is the way these kids communicate with each other.
As parents, we need to get on board too. Kids may start to clam up at this age, as the importance of their friends tends to overshadow mom and dad. This does not mean they don't need you. In fact, they need you more than ever… send them reminders via text or e-mail about safety, checking in, and following their instincts. Will it be annoying? Will they think you are nuts? Probably, but the important part is that they read the message (at least the first 10 times.. after that you may have to get more creative). Let them know they can come to you if something is bothering them.
About the Author: Kim Estes is the co-founder of the non-profit organization: Parent Education And Child Empowerment (P.E.A.C.E of Mind) www.pomwa.org . Kim has worked with parents for over 12 years, educating them on various parenting topics. Through non fearful techniques and easy to apply parenting strategies they help empower families to be safe.
