Q. My ten-year-old is going to be walking to school with a group of friends, starting this fall. I don’t want to make her totally paranoid, but I do think I should arm her with some street smarts. Any tips?
In addition to reviewing the basic pedestrian safety rules she needs to avoid a run-in with a cyclist or motor vehicle, you’ll also want to make sure she knows how to deal with bullies and anyone else she might bump into who doesn’t have her best interests at heart, including potential child abductors.
One thing you don’t want to do is warn her not to speak to strangers. Not only is that advice unhelpful: it can actually be dangerous in that it gives kids the message that it’s safe to speak to anyone that they’ve met before. (These acquaintances are non-strangers—at least by their definition.)
A more realistic approach is to give kids the tools they need to keep themselves safe, according to Samantha Wilson, founder of Kidproof Canada and author of Safe Kids, Safe Families (HarperCollins, 2005). “What you need to do is to empower your children with self-confidence and trust in their ability to sense when something is just not right,” she explains. “What will protect children is their ability to develop a keen sense of awareness, observation skills, and self-control. Most important, they must be taught to listen to their instincts.”
