Teaching Kids About Personal Safety

Hi there. In this education post, I want to highlight the topic of personal safety for kids. Adults could also benefit from personal safety tips.

Personal safety tips can be taught at the household level from parents or from school. It is more ideal if parents teach their kids personal safety amongst other things. (Schools don't teach everything due to time and resources.)

Teaching Kids To Not Touch Certain Things

When kids are young they may get fascinated by shiny objects, bright colours or other things. Parents should be mindful, aware and alert when they are with their kids.

• Inform kids to not touch those electricity boxes on the street.
• Don't touch the glass.
• Look both ways before crossing the street (and make sure there is a stop light for the cars).
• Watch out for fire, lightning and violent people.
• That thing may not be candy.
• Don't be near the train tracks.

and so on.

Stranger, Danger!

Stranger Danger is a useful phrase for kids. It is a warning that all strangers can be dangerous. Some dangerous strangers can take kids away and do bad stuff. Even people that may seem nice can suddenly turn into a bad person.

Stranger, Danger even applies to adults, young women in particular who go out at night for parties and socializing.

Social Media Dangers

With technology very popular in our daily lives, we do have (unfortunately) addicts that are on social media a lot. They are glued to their phones and consume a lot of media. I do find it disturbing when kids starting from age 10 have cellphones/tablets and are addicted to social media.

There are parental controls that parents can use to filter out adult content and inappropriate material for kids. Additional controls include a time limit for kids being on social media and video games. Parents should also take the time to teach their kids about online safety. Stranger, Danger also applies for online.

Self Defense, Combat Sports and Martial Arts

In an ideal world, there would be peace and safe communities. It is important to be aware of the existence of bad people, bad actors and violent behaviour. Kids are one the most vulnerable people in our society today.

Parents should protect their kids as they grow up. What if the parents are not around or the kids are out on their own? When the kids are out on their own, they have to be aware of their surroundings and potential dangers.

Having kids learn self-defense and martial arts is beneficial for their own safety, fitness and well-being. There are different types of martial arts out there. Striking arts include Taekwondo, Karate, Muay Thai, Kickboxing, etc. Japanese Jiujitsu, Brazilian Jiujitsu (BJJ), Judo are good for close quarters combat with grappling. Boxing and wrestling are good too.

Being trained in martial arts does not make one fully protected against violent people. They do help prepare someone for fighting if one is in a unfortunate surprise fight. One common advice is to try to avoid fights and dangerous situations.

Other Notes

The motivation behind this post was based on me being out and about in the city. There has also been some unfortunate violent incidents in the Toronto area. This reminds me about personal safety and to be careful of surroundings.

Most of the stuff mentioned here is mainly for kids but adults have to mindful of their own personal safety too.