How to improve the safety of your child in the city

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

You need to define the rules, follow them with the children and talk a lot.

Attach reflective items to your clothing

In the dark, the driver sees a child without reflective elements on his clothes at a distance of 30 meters, with them - at a distance of 150 meters. In the second case, he has much more time to slow down or turn off. At the same time, the baby can be knocked down not only by motorists, but also by skateboarders, cyclists, and finally, just scattered fast walking pedestrians. Making it visible in the dark is keeping it safe.

Reflective elements are produced in the form of stripes, stickers, badges. They are often sewn into high-quality outerwear right at the factory. But if the manufacturer did not do this, then take care of the child yourself.

Always use a child car seat

Not that you have a choice: it is forbidden to transport children under 12 years old without special restraint systems. However, many parents ignore this requirement.

For example, a child is naughty in a car seat and is allowed to stand in the back seat. Or the baby is not considered a full-fledged passenger and is put on his knees so that another adult can get into the car. Or parents mostly go by taxi and save time by calling the first one they come across without a special seat. There are many excuses, but the consequences can be dire. Moreover, it is not necessary to get into an accident, sharp braking in urban traffic jams is enough to suffer.

“We drove without car seats and survived,” say car seat opponents. Those who did not survive cannot argue with them.

Meanwhile, research shows that child safety seats reduce the risk of death by at least 21%. This is a fairly high percentage, meaning that one in five children who drive without a car seat will die in an accident.

It is noteworthy that this figure was obtained when comparing car seats with conventional seat belts. Situations where children are free to jump around the cabin or sit on someone's lap are not counted here. So it's better not to skimp on buying a car seat: it can really save lives.

Learn emergency communication information with your child

Talk with your child about what to tell the people who are trying to help him in an emergency. He must confidently call him and your name, how old he is, where he lives. Ideally, it would be nice to learn your mobile phone number with him.

Put a personal note in your pocket

Even if your child has learned by heart the name of his or her parents and what phone numbers to contact them by, in a stressful situation he can get confused. With particularly sad events, he simply will not be able to speak. Therefore, it will not be superfluous to duplicate this information in writing.

Write important data on a piece of paper, place it in a waterproof transparent cover and do not forget to transfer from one child's jacket to another.

Take a photo of the child before leaving the house

If you are going to a crowded place where it is easy to get lost, take a photo with your smartphone. In the event of a missing child, it will be easy for you to explain how he looks and what he is wearing.

Teach your child to use a mobile phone

A cheap simple device will not arouse the interest of thieves, but it can help out in a crisis situation. Set your number to speed dial so that you can be contacted with the push of a button.

There is also a smartwatch with a communication function. But buy a gadget carefully: if the device determines the location using GPS, the police may be interested in you. It is a criminal offense to acquire tracking devices, and children's watches are no exception.

Play on your own

Practice crisis situations in a playful way, according to the age of the child. For example, ask him to pretend he is lost. What will he do, where will he go, who will he turn to?

Play different scenarios. For example, a child is no longer a toddler and returns from school on his own. If he loses the keys, several scenarios are possible: he will visit a friend until the evening, come to your work, call his grandmother to come with a spare key. It is better to think over each of these options together in advance, so that an already difficult situation does not turn into a test of ingenuity.

Explain how to act if lost

Talk about it in all places where you go. For example, in a shopping center or airport, it would be more correct to stand where you are lost. And if you didn't manage to get out of public transport with your mother, it would be more correct to get off at the next stop and wait there.

In this case, the child will know that you are also acting according to a certain algorithm and sooner or later will find it.

Teach your child to scream

More often, parents demand the opposite of their children: not to shout, not to attract attention. In a crisis situation, this will not work. The child should be able to loudly, without hesitation, call for help, especially if someone is trying to take him away.

Define rules for interacting with people

Usually children are taught not to talk or go away with strangers. This automatically assumes that they will trust their friends and relatives. At the same time, crimes against the sexual integrity of children are more often committed not by strangers from the street. Therefore, it is necessary to expand the boundaries of potential danger, but carefully.

In Europe, the so-called panties rule is used: no one should touch the places that are under the underwear.

Exceptions are parents when bathing and a doctor with the permission of the parents. But here you need to act more carefully: the feeling of shame, the fear of telling you about dangerous situations is not at all what you should get.

The boundaries of trust should be narrowed for other cases as well. For example, you say that you cannot open the door to strangers. But what if the guest introduces himself as the hero of his favorite cartoon? Curiosity can overpower, but it shouldn't.

Pick a password

Imagine: a child in kindergarten. Your friend comes and tries to pick him up. It is difficult for a kid to understand whether to trust him or not. Perhaps it was really you who asked someone to come after him because of force majeure. In such cases, the password and the ability to use it correctly will come in handy. The person says the code word, and it means that you are really aware of what is happening.

Learn the rules of the road

Explain to your child how to properly move along the streets, cross the road. Talk about the rules, even if you are driving, so that the children can look at the situation from both sides, see how difficult it is for the car to brake, and so on.

And, importantly, follow all these rules. If you cross the road in the wrong place, it will be difficult to explain why you shouldn't do this. The "because I'm an adult" argument won't work.

Explain how to navigate the city

In the era of maps in smartphones, not every adult knows how to navigate the terrain without gadgets, and this is a very useful skill. Play tourists with your child: follow the signs and signs, look for street names, ask for directions, use the maps installed in the metro or at stops.

When going somewhere, ask the children to remember the route and guide you on the way back. This fun game can make life a lot easier one day if your phone runs out of power.

Teach the rules of evacuation

Lifehacker wrote in detail what to do if the building was evacuated because of a bomb call. Reread these rules yourself and talk about them with the children.

Explain Why Some Things Are Dangerous

Every "no" should be followed by an accessible explanation why. If you say that you can't jump from the roof of the garage because you break your leg, your child may not have enough experience to understand why it's scary.“You can't, because I said so” and not an argument at all. The consequences will have to be discussed if you want to truly protect the child. And “discuss” does not mean “intimidate”.

The source of danger is not necessarily a transformer box or an abandoned house. You can also get injured on the playground. The child has only two ways to learn about the possible consequences: from you or from personal experience. So do not be lazy to talk and explain.

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