By: MASK (Mothers Awareness on School-age Kids)
It can feel overwhelming trying to keep your child or adolescent safe. Use these seven safety tips for parents to help you feel secure about your child or adolescent’s safety both in and out of the home.
1. Tech
While advances in technology have created new safety hazards for our children, they have also created new ways for us to keep them safe. Programs like BARK help you monitor your child’s internet usage in real time and programs like Circle can help you filter what you child is able to see, track their usage, and connect all the family’s devices to an app on a parent’s phone.
2. Alcohol & Prescription Drugs
It is important to keep both alcohol and prescription drugs locked up and out of your child’s reach. Make sure to have conversations about the dangers of abusing alcohol and prescription drugs with your child and ensure that you are modeling proper use of both. Always make sure you are properly disposing of drugs when you no longer need them to ensure that there is no chance of your child finding them.
3. Gun Safety
If there is a gun in the home, it is crucial that proper safety measures are in place. Teach your child that it is never okay to touch the gun. Lock up the gun and ammunition separately and ensure that the gun is only out when it is about to be used. When going to other’s houses ask if there is a gun onsite and make sure it is locked up before you go over.
4. Safety Around Water
Even if you don’t have a pool, drowning is still a danger. It is important that there is a sober adult watching kids when they are in the pool, bathtub, and even if they are playing with something like a bucket of water. Having a pool fence is essential to keep your child from accidentally falling into the water when you aren’t with them and having child locks on anything that is a drowning danger is essential.
5. Fire Safety in the Home
To help prevent fires make sure to never leave candles, fireplaces, or lit stoves unattended, and to keep combustible chemicals locked away. Make sure to talk to your kids about the dangers of fire and as they become old enough to cook, educate them on the importance of fire safety. Also make sure to test your fire alarms every month and have an escape plan in place just in case a fire does occur.
6. Relational Safety
When your kids start talking about relationships make sure to let them know about the dangers of online dating and teach them these tips to help them stay safe. They should never meet up with a complete stranger that they met online and if they do end up going out on a date with someone from a dating app it should always be in a public place in the daytime.
7. Physical Safety
Programs like Life360 can allow you to know where each member of your family is and can connect you and your children to resources in the case of an emergency. Technology like alarm systems and camera doorbells can allow you to keep your home and your family safe at all times. Teaching your child self-defense and talking to them about consent can also help keep them safe when they are out on their own.
MASK (Mothers Awareness on School-age Kids) is a non-profit 501 (c)(3) organization created in 2007 by a group of dedicated mothers who recognized the need to consistently educate families on rapidly changing issues. The MASK mission is to engage and educate parents, children and the community about the issues facing youth and to empower children to make safe, healthy choices.
MASK helps children learn invaluable life skills for how to cope with a number of issues including responding to peer pressure, dealing with trauma and technology-related challenges. In today’s viral and social media world, coping skills are more necessary than ever. MASK equips students to feel confident regulating their emotions, maintaining frustration tolerance, and setting healthy boundaries. MASK has served the community for over a decade, with the goal of strengthening parent-child bonds and empowering children to make decisions from a place of knowledge and confidence which will prepare them to thrive.
MASK fulfills its mission by engaging, educating and empowering families through the MASK E3 Institute, MASK The Magazine, an informative website, MASK Live segments through MaskMatters YouTube channel, and the MASKMatters App.
