Five Safety Tips Your Children Should Learn

It is important that your children learn all about keeping themselves safe, avoiding danger and being wary of strangers. You don't want to frighten your children but there are things you can teach them so they are more aware of the dangers that they could come across. Unfortunately the reality is that sometimes accidents and bad things happen, and there are people out there who have no concern for others and their safety. Take appropriate steps yourself to protect your family, and installing security doors and security screens is a good start.

Don't open the door to strangers

You need to teach your children about the hazard of strangers. Not everyone is a danger, of course not, but it is impossible to tell who is a friend and who is a foe. Even as adults we can't always tell and this is something that is even harder for children who are often quite trusting of adults. Teaching them that they should never open the front door if someone knocks is a start. Either they let you answer it or they open the front door but leave the security door shut and locked. With a security door you can still see out and speak to the person, but with a lot of security doors they can't see in.

Never go with a stranger

This is a vital lesson to teach your children. They should never accept a lift from someone they don't know or accept an offer by someone to walk them home. You hear cases where some children have been grabbed by strangers and put into cars and kidnapped. Don't frighten your child but warn them of the dangers of strangers and that if anything like this was ever to happen to them they should make as much noise as possible and try to fight off their attacker, unless they have a weapon.

Be careful around water

Every year there are many incidents of children drowning. To help our children it is important that they firstly learn to swim, but also that you teach them the importance of keeping safe around water. Swimming at the beach or in rivers presents many hazards as there are a lot of unknown factors, like the force of the tides and rips at the beach and underwater hazards in rivers, like tree branches and rocks. Teach your children that diving into water that they don't know the depth of is extremely dangerous. Also always make sure they swim between the flags at the beach. When they are swimming in a pool they still need to be careful, knowing not to dive into the shallow end or run around the edges in case they slip.

Fire

Have a plan in place in case there is a fire in your home and have your family practice what you would do. Teach your children to get down and crawl to safety, as dangerous smoke and fumes rise, and if they need to go through a door to check to see if it's hot first in case there is a fire on the other side. Show them where you will assemble outside, preferably on the footpath on the other side of the room. Tell them they are to get themselves out and not worry about any belongings or pets.

Poisons

When your children are very young you need to lock up any dangerous or poisonous substances, but later once your children are old enough you need to explain that they can't play with chemicals or hazardous materials. It is a good idea to have a list of phone numbers stuck on the fridge, including all the correct emergency numbers.

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