Last week was World Health Day – it is one thing to stay healthy by eating and exercising – but it does not help if you have a healthy body and get yourself into an unhealthy situation!
There have been a number of scary incidents around the country recently where people have tried to steal children – in some case from right under their parental agent’s noses. How crazy is that?
Sadly child trafficking is alive and well and happens much more that we would like to think.
Here are a few simple rules to help keep your children safe:
- Teach your kids about different types of strangers. You do not want your children to think that everybody they don’t know is a bad person. There are different types of strangers. People who try to tempt children with sweets or stuff to lure them into cars are BAD! Adults who ask kids for help are also BAD.
- Don’t let them run away from you in the shops or a public place. It’s not cool for them to hide – it gives you a heart attack and it gives some nasty weasel the opportunity to snatch your kid.
- Teach your kids to STAY WHERE THEY ARE and shout YOUR NAME if you get separated. They should not shout “mummy” because some other kid might also be having a meltdown and be yelling the same thing. Sounds silly – but make sure your kids know your name. Teach them not to run up and down looking for you because that will make the situation worse.
- Tell you kids to look for a HELPFUL person if they do get totally lost or something happens. A policeman, a teacher, a shop assistant or another mum or dad with a pushchair or kids of their own with them.
- Impress upon your children that they should NEVER EVER get in a car with a STRANGER. No matter what story the person tells them.
- If somebody tries to grab them – it really is okay to shout, kick, scream, bite or do whatever they can to get away.
But even worse… people that you know and trust are often the worst offenders when it comes to abusing kids. Research shows that 1 in 5 girls and 1 in 8 boys will be sexually abused before they turn 18. Totally horrific!
We’ll cover that topic in next week’s blog.
Kids are precious – keep them safe please.
Sibo
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