Strangers!!!!!

Brandy - posted on 05/30/2009

My sons are 11 years and 12 months. My eldest had a similar problem when he was 6 and he was walking home from the bus stop every day. It freaked me out! So I had my friends husband who is a local sheriff talk to him about missing children and weirdo's. He explained to him that they can be little old ladies or mean looking men and it doesn't matter. They are all strangers. My son really understood and to this day will not talk to any one that we do not know without permission. In stores, he is very polite, will say yes or no to their question and then walks away. We don't allow him to go anywhere alone as it is always safer in numbers, but I know that we have gotten it into his head that there are dangers out there. And he knew this at 6. Having a cop talk to him was more for the effect of making it real. Kids seem to think that their parents know nothing. LOL Silly. Anyways, it seems like we want to keep our children sheltered and avoid having them find out about the bad things in the world as long as possible but in today's day and age we have to make it known that not everything is nice and you cannot trust everyone. Its really too bad.

Vicki - posted on 05/30/2009

At about age 4 we started teaching our son about staying safe among people you don't know. Don't knows include acquaintances, and anybody that's not on the approved list. The approved list is a very small select group of people that I trust, like my mom, my sisters, my mother in law, and some of our friends.



There is a great DVD my son watched over and over, and we've loaned it out to many of our friends too. It's a fun video, not too scarey for little ones. It's called Safe Side Superchick in Stranger Safety.



www.safeside.com

www.missingkids,com

Libby - posted on 05/30/2009

I have told my children over and over again the danger of strangers. When we get a card in the mail about a bad stranger that lives in the area I show them the picture. I have also looked this up online as well to see how many bad strangers that we know of live near us. I always remind my kids that there are a lot of bad strangers in a store or restaurant. I have told them what to do and asked them repeatedly what to do if there is a stranger.



I have heard about someone setting up the scenario of stranger danger to see if their child would go or not. Perhaps you have a co-worker that your children don't know that you could test them on strangers and make it a very vivid memory for them on what they did wrong and what they did right! Maybe have this person pull up out front in their car when you are on the other side of the yard. Or meet you in a public place and approach your children and attempt to see if they will go with him or her. Just an idea. I know it's hard to think that this might scare your kids, but they really do need to have a little bit of fear in them when it comes to strangers. I always thought my worst fear would be to out live a child. And now that that has happened to me and we lost a daughter last year, I truly know my biggest fear is someone taking my child. We must give our kids all of the tools to protect themselves. ie; how to recognize a stranger, how to scream and fight to get away, where to go that is safe, etc, etc.

Samantha - posted on 05/30/2009

i said to my son"do u like living here?"he said yes of course n then i explained stranger danger to him,n explained that the strangers could say anything or say that they have anything.But then i asked him where all his fav things were n he said" in my room"then i said"well would you want me to be so sad cause you got taken away that i would have to give all your fav things away?"n he really didnt like th thought of that,then 1 day we went shopping and he was being silly of course...wen he fell n bumped his head.an elderly man bent down to help him up and he yelled"no go away your a stranger dont touch me!"lol so i think the thought of me getting rid of his stuff really got through to him! lol