5 Tips To Teach Your Kids About Safety At Home And Outside

This famous saying about the home being where the heart is has been attributed to a number of reasons, including peace, comfort, and the sense of safety it offers. Like every other concerned parent or guardian, building a safe and sound home for ourselves and kids is a priority. But safety, in general, is a collective responsibility of all family members, including even young children, to promote an environment free from harm and injury.

Statistics indicate that over 2,000 kids suffer from home injury yearly in the US, which is just another reason to take home safety more seriously. Hidden dangers pose a threat to your kids’ safety, especially in your absence, hence the need to teach them some safety tips even at that early age. What have you taught your kids so far, and is it enough? Well, below are some tips worth introducing to your kids to keep them safe. 

1. Always keep doors and windows closed

Ensuring you keep doors closed upon entering should be the number one safety tip to introduce to your kids. This appears so simple yet often overlooked. Aside from preventing intruders from accessing your home, ensuring your doors are always closed means you prevent younger kids from getting outside without your notice. Closed doors also prevent reptiles and other unwelcome animals from gaining access to your home. Doors and windows are the main access points used by intruders, so emphasis must be placed on keeping them closed firmly. For the latter, getting the best replacement windows can be pivotal in ensuring the best security. 

2. Teach kids not to trust or accept presents from strangers 

Ensuring your kids’ well-being from perils such as kidnapping or other dangers means training them on the best way to not associate with individuals or people they have little knowledge about. This knowledge greatly lowers the risks of falling victim to such situations. There is a good chance that you will not always be there for your children, most especially after school. But one thing you can do is to teach them to understand the need not to confide in individuals they don’t have a clue. Besides, notwithstanding how safe your neighborhood might be, you may not know where the peril hides. Kids can be very friendly, which makes them more vulnerable to be taken advantage of or hurt.

3. No access to some rooms without supervision

As your children grow up, you may no longer need to utilize certain safety gadgets like baby gates. This is on the grounds that they have as of now grown out of it. The vast majority of these security gadgets are intended for kids under seven years. In this way, parents must teach their kids what areas in the home they don’t have access to. Some rooms may contain tools and objects that can cause bodily harm when not handled properly, even for adults. For kids, it could turn out disastrous if not fatal. 

4. Kids must be taught to stay away from hazardous products 

Encourage your kid to maintain a reasonable distance from certain unsafe substances in the home until authorized. Kids can be curious, which often leads to ingesting or inhaling substances that produce harmful effects. Poisoning is also caused by absorption through the skin, so it is essential to teach kids to avoid such items and substances. Two in over 300 children die daily due to poisoning in the US, a statistic that shows the importance of this point. The best option will be to keep these hazardous products out of reach altogether. But at the point where the children are mature enough to recognize what is dangerous and not, show them the items they are not expected to deal with without any supervision. These include substances without labels to indicate they are dangerous.

5. Teach kids about themselves 

Cases of sexual abuse among children still exist, and these have mostly been perpetrated by strangers and, in some instances, familiar people. Therefore, it is increasingly necessary for kids to be taught about their bodies and acceptable and unacceptable behaviors early to help forestall any such incidents. Advancement in technology means kids get to read and see so much on the internet, which may mislead them. Therefore, monitor what they are watching and listening to, and answer any questions they may have with an open mind. This is a safety precaution that will guide children on how they should approach and interact with people, regardless of whether they are familiar.