It's Time to Have a Talk About Safety with Your Kids

How do you know when it is the right time to have the safety talk with your kids? That’s a trick question. There is no one safety talk to have with your kids. It is a series of talks and lifestyle choices. There is also no singular time to have these talks. Safety is an ongoing concern that starts in the womb. It never stops. That said, here are some of the topics, times, and techniques for these teaching opportunities:

Home Security

Home is where the heart is, and the stereo, and the family jewels, and the computers… In other words, home is the place where you keep your stuff. It is also the place where one should feel most secure. When your child is old enough to understand the value of home, you should start teaching them how to protect it.

Without even explaining what you are doing, you can start a ritual of taking the children with you in the evening as you make your rounds to secure the house. You can even make a game out of it as you lock the front door, the back door, check the windows, and arm the alarm system.

Even bucolic parts of the world like Bend, Oregon need to be protected with the latest security methods. ADT in Bend Oregon is one of the many affordable ways to add extra protection to your home even when you are not there to look after things yourself. Kids are naturally curious. So as you take them on the rounds, they will ask questions. It is a natural teaching opportunity. Basic security will become a part of their ritual that they can pass on to their kids when it is time.

Personal Security

When your children are very small, their personal safety is entirely on you. They have no part to play in it, because there is no part they can play. Before a child can be responsible for their own safety, they have to understand the concept of danger. Once they do, they can begin to take an active role in their own personal security.

When they are old enough to start leaving the house by themselves, they need to already know about thinks like crossing the street. This is the sort of thing you can teach them as you take them on walks when they are young.

They also need to be made aware of the difference between friends and strangers. Teachers, neighbors, friends of the family, police officers: these are the kinds of people they can trust as opposed to people they don’t know. It is a mistake to teach them to trust and obey all adults. That’s the last thing you want them to do. The personal safety of your children begins with them knowing who they can trust. That list should never bee too long.

Data Security

You would think that you could put off conversations about data security until they are in their teens. But that is simply not the case. Data security becomes an issue the moment your kids are old enough to have data that can be exploited. You want them to carry emergency numbers and the home address with them at all times in the even they wander off and get lost. But you also need them to know how and when to use that information so that it doesn’t end up in the wrong hands.

Once they have an email address and the ability to text message, they likely carry enough personal data for your family identify to be stolen and exploited by thieves. Their smartphone that they are most certainly going to lose at some point needs to have fingerprint unlock, preferably even something with encryption strong enough that even the government can’t break in.

Home security, personal security, and data security are the main topics of the security discussion you need to have with your kids. Just remember that discussion is ongoing, and probably should have already started by now.