Keeping Your Child Safe Oct 24 '02    Write an essay on this topic. Tweet Popular Products in Baby Care Kid Kusion Kid Safe Driveway Guard - 25' From $100 Childproof Clean Guard Cleaning Supply S From $30 The Bottom Line You can never talk too much about this subject when you have small children. It seems like every time the news comes on, we are hearing of another child who has disappeared from her home. This isn't a new phenomenon, but it affects me it a very different way than it used to. No longer is this just a news story of someone else's child gone. This is a concern to everyone who has a child they love in their life. My son started kindergarten this year. I've not had a habit of letting him get into situations where he wouldn't be in the care of other trusted adults in the past. However, this year as we were driving to his new elementary school to enroll him in kindergarten, we noticed a police car who had pulled over a man near the school. Figuring the poor sucker was getting a ticket, we proceeded on to do our errand. As I was filling out the paper work, another parent walked inside of the elementary school's office to report that this man was seen trying to lure a twelve-year old child inside of his car. I was stunned. As if sending my only child off to "real" school wasn't stressful enough, now I had terrifying thoughts of the perverts who lurk near school yards. I took my son to lunch to discuss with him what we'd just heard. Trying to cover a lifetime's worth of scary situations, my son fidgeted in the booth and looked around at everyone but me. Finally, after quizzing him and learning that he was listening to everyone but me, I said in frustration, "Listen to me. This person I'm talking about wants to take children away so that they will never see their parents again. What I'm saying to you is important." After this dramatic statement, I soon was left with a crying, terrified child whose wails rivaled any I've heard since in the Lincolnton KFC. OK, so I scared him, but he listened after that, right? Certainly. I quiz him daily on this stuff because when I was little a man actually got me. I was lucky, though. He must have been just starting out, and I got away basically unscathed. This smart seven-year old was lured away by the request to help a grown man find his sister. I go overboard because of this. I still remember telling my parents, my mother's screaming and my father running out of the house with his gun. These people are normally rational and decent people, so I know this must have been terrifying. I knew I was terrified at having done something so stupid as to leave with a stranger. I chaperoned my son's kindergarten class on a trip to Tweetsie Railroad yesterday. We had so many parents that each of us only had one extra child, and anyone can keep up with 2 kids. Lucky me, I had my mother and the other child's mother with me, so that's three adults to two kids. Easy. As I paid for the souvenir cap gun at the register, I let my son walk away from me, figuring he was going back to his friend (who was standing by his mother). I turned around no more than 30 seconds later, to see him nowhere. I sent my mother in one direction, my friend in the other, and I ran outside, all of us screaming Ty's name. I found him in a covered wagon just outside the store after the most terrifying minute of my life. This compels me to write some tips I've gathered from other parents I've told this story to (i.e., the girls at work). First, once your child is old enough to spend time away from you (I let my child play in the backyard with the neighborhood children while I'm inside) you need to begin discussing child abduction. There is a growing concern that your child will fear every person they've never met, but that is a side effect of the society we live in, unfortunately. For example, my husband builds homes. We hire sub contractors, and some of them we don't know. Once while Ty was outside playing, they walked into the yard to use our hose (which my husband had told them to do) and Ty ran inside to get me. I told him he'd done the right thing. Make sure your child knows if any adult approaches him, he needs to get you. That isn't rude, and it isn't childish, it is smart. We recently had a man in a white van try to lure children inside with cartoons he had on a TV inside the van. Immediately we discussed this with Ty, since he is fascinated by any van-owning neighbors that have these electronic devices inside of their automobiles. Make sure your child knows that under no circumstance is your child to ever get into an automobile or leave with another adult without talking to you. Any adult that tries to talk them out of telling their parents what they are doing is bad, and they should run as hard as they can to get away. That man that got me away from my friends in broad daylight with about a dozen witnesses asked me to help find his sister. I've heard similar stories using a "puppy" or a "kitty." I fell for it hook, line and sinker because all seven-year old children are good and want to help. We don't want to quell that instinct but make sure your child knows that no adult needs a child's help. If an adult approaches your child, make sure he tells the person that he will get his mother or father to help and if the person says no to run as fast as he can to get away from them. There is no reason that a child need ever help an adult without his parents knowledge. Lastly, I work about half an hour's drive from my hometown. This means that sometimes I am unable to get home on time, but I've made up a plan with my son. If the person who picks him up is not to be me, his father, his grandmother or our neighbor, then I will speak to him personally at school to give him instructions on what to do. Make sure your child knows not to ride with anyone who has not been personally OK'd by you, no matter what they say. Most importantly, talk about this to your children. Make use of the time you have driving to school, setting the table and taking a bath. When I see situations on TV like I've discussed, I give Ty a look that says "Did you see that?" and let him tell me what the child did wrong. However you bring it up, what is most important is that you do.

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