Mistakes To Avoid When Trying to Keep Your Children Safe
If you’re like me, your first kid taught you that keeping your kids safe is incredibly important but also difficult to achieve. Even when y’all’s children are more well-behaved, it doesn’t mean they’re immune to damage or won’t end up in dangerous situations. If you want your children to be safe, avoid these parenting mistakes. It seems simple at first, but keeping your children safe through thick and thin actually takes a lot of work.
Assuming Internet Safety
When I was growing up, the internet was the wild west, and people were learning about how to be safe while the internet was also learning to regulate itself. While it’s a safer place than it was 20 years ago, you should still work hard to teach your children internet safety. Part of the reason it seems safer now is because there are more rules in place.
You are also looking at the internet through the lens of someone who’s developed great technological literacy skills, something your child doesn’t have yet. If you want your child to be safe on these platforms, it’s imperative you go out of your way to teach them some valuable internet safety skills. Some basic skills that are incredibly important include vetting information, not clicking on links, and not trusting strangers.
Failing To Get the Right Equipment
One of the biggest mistakes that parents make, which can also be incredibly common, is failing to get the right safety equipment. For example, if you wanted to put your child into sports, you would need to get them the necessary gear as well as the equipment needed to keep them safe. One sport that’s notoriously dangerous is motocross, but that danger is less because of the sport itself and the way many kids participate in it.
Safety equipment is common for beginners, but once some kids get the ability to ride, they start getting a little reckless. A motorcycle helmet is important while riding, even for the most experienced riders. If you want to keep your children safe, you need to get them the right equipment and ensure that they actually use and wear it.
Not Teaching Outside Safety Rules
Another critical mistake y’all should avoid is not teaching your child outside safety rules. I’m guilty of this myself, but there’s just a common misconception that the safety rules at home will translate into critical thinking your child can do anywhere. In reality, they are still really young and need a lot of guidance, which is why y’all must help them learn about their surroundings. In public, they need to watch where they’re going, avoid talking to strangers, and learn when a situation is dangerous and they should leave.
Y’all need to learn to avoid these mistakes when trying to keep your children safe because they can make the biggest difference. I know that safety is never going to be a guarantee, but once you have a good understanding of what to avoid, everything else will fall into place!
