Teaching Your Young One To Be Safe

In the last few articles, we have looked at the various safety hazards that your child will encounter and how you can prevent them. However, one of the most important safety precautions that some parents tend to forget is teaching their kids how to be safe. In this article, Baby Insider will guide you on how you can train your little one on how to stay safe.

When can you teach your kids about safety?

One common reason why parents tend to overlook teaching their toddlers safety precautions is because “they are still too young.” However, as it turns out, there is actually no exact age at which to start teaching your child about safety. Instead, your child’s current level of comprehension will be the biggest deciding factor.

Physical pain is the first danger that he will be able to comprehend, so this is where you want to start. As your child’s intelligence grows, he will be able to comprehend other dangers like poisons and electrical. Eventually, he will learn about unseen dangers like going with strangers or staying out late.

So, how do you teach your little one?

Often, when teaching their children about safety, some parents tend to just go on lecturing about the topic. However, this is actually a bad way to go about the topic, as it will only end up making your child very anxious about their surroundings. This can, in turn affect how they interact not only with objects but also with other people.

Instead, it would be better for you to let your children learn by actively participating in your lectures. For instance, you can turn it into a little “game” so that he can better grasp the lessons. Of course, you need to patiently remind your young on that the lessons that he will be learning are not something to take lightly.

Creating house rules

As you have learned in the previous articles, your house it itself home to a variety of dangers. Hence, this is definitely where you would want to start.

When creating your “house rules”. It would be helpful to know your child’s activities. From there, you will be able to set boundaries between the areas that he can head to and those that he should stay away from. To better train your little one to recognize these boundaries, you can actually mark these physically with brightly colored markers. This can also be used when teaching your child about the things that he should stay away from, like knives, heavy objects, and others.

A good way to help your little one remember the various safety rules that you have in the house is by printing out the list and posting it in places where he can easily read it, such as in front of the refrigerator. It would also be useful to list out the important information like his parents’ complete names, the house’ address, and numbers to call should there be an emergency.

Speaking of emergency numbers, it is a good idea for you to teach him early how to dial these. Luckily, most emergency numbers, like 911, are very short and thus can be easily remembered. Practice dialing these with the receiver button taped down so that your little one doesn’t accidentally dial the number.

Teaching your kid how to be safe when he is alone

While the general safety rule is always that you don’t leave your children alone, there will nevertheless be times when he will be by himself, such as when he finally starts heading out to school.

An important part of teaching your child how he can be safe when he is alone is teaching him where to get help should he find himself in a not so safe situation. This is where the earlier lesson about the important numbers to call would be helpful. However, you can still add more to it by teaching him about the people that he can ask for help.

Of course, one of the biggest dangers when your kid when he is alone is having to interact with strangers. While not all of them are bad, there are those who can indeed do your children harm. Hence, it is a must for you to teach him how to spot suspicious behavior Some such behaviors include:

Offering treats.
Pretending to ask for help.
Pretending that there is an emergency.
Feigning authority and/or pretending to be an official.
Faking to know the kid’s parents.

Here. Teach your kid that he should not go with such people and instead tell them to the proper authorities. Having a secret “family code” that only you and your little one will also help him discern if someone is just pretending to know you or be you. Finally, if he is by himself in the house, tell him not to open the door to any stranger.