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Do This Now To Keep Your Kids Safe

Having scary conversations with your kids can keep them safe. You do everything you can to protect your kids, but sometimes it isn't enough. Blanca Cobb explains.

When you think about carjackings, you don't think about your kids being in the back of the car. Well, that's exactly what happened to a Burlington family this week. While parents put groceries in the back of their car, their 10 and 9 y.o. children were in the backseat when a man jumped in their car and took off. This story has a happy ending because the children were returned safely to their parents. 

Even though carjackings with your kids in the car, car accidents and natural disasters don't happen frequently, it's important to have these scary conversations with your kids because it could save their lives. Explain to your kids that you do everything you can to protect them. This is the reason that you have rules for your kids to follow even if they don't like or agree with your rules. But, sometimes what you do as a parent isn't enough. 

If you're wondering how to start this conversation with your kids is to think of it as an every day conversation. Explain that it's just like their school where they practice fire drills, tornado drills and lock downs. You can use what happen to this family in Burlington as the conversation starter. Talk what your family can learn from their situation to stay safe. Talk about what happens when you go to your car and you're busy putting items in the trunk. Decide if the kids go into the car and you lock the doors. Or, if everyone stays out of the car and after all items are in the car then everyone climbs aboard. And you want to practice your plan. This means when you're walking out of a store and into the parking lot, you and your kids look at your surroundings and looking at people. If there are situations that make you uncomfortable then you tell your kids, "There's too many unknown people around our car so we're going back in the store. Or, we're going to walk a different way to our car." When you make it part of every day life and it's normal then you're conditioning your kids' brains to start thinking that way. This is important because in emergency situations your child has to stay calm in order to think. 

Kids are raised to listen to adults. If not then they get into trouble. If there's a seemingly nice person who wants to talk to your child and your kid doesn't want to be rude or unhelpful if the adult asks for help, what should you teach your kid? This is a great time to talk about reasonable and unreasonable requests from adults. Give specific examples. Help them understand that a nice tone of voice and nice manners from the adult isn't adequate reason to do what they say. You have to teach your kids to start thinking critically and denying adults requests when appropriate. Again, practice and role play so your child is comfortable saying no. Make sure your kids know that they won't get in trouble with you if they do. 

Share your thoughts on my Facebook page: Blanca Cobb-Body Language Expert. Write a message on my timeline and I'll get back to you. While you're on my page, I'd appreciate if you give it a "like". 

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