Strangers will still talk to the child on the street. A mother of four told how one simple rule saved the lives of her sons.
You, of course, also teach your child the “don’t talk to strangers” rule. But the world is so arranged that children will still have to communicate with people on the street – out of politeness or credulity. Repeated experiments by journalists and bloggers on YouTube show parents how easy it is to take their child out of the playground simply by promising to “show the kitten.” Instead of teaching the kids a rule that doesn’t work in real life, read this mom’s story.
Jodie Norton’s advice saved her sons from kidnapping
Jody Norton from Texas, USA, has four children. She in the blog with a story of how they managed to escape danger, making their mother first numb with horror and then proud of their boys.
“I was in the shower at 8:30 am when unbearable pain in my left ovary gripped me. I somehow managed to get dressed and, having gathered all four children, went to the hospital 5 minutes from home (if the pain had not clouded my brain, I would, of course, have better called an ambulance, something that happened next!)
At some point, barely realizing from the pain (as it turned out, I had a ruptured cyst), together with the two younger ones, I went inside, leaving the two older boys, 10 and 8 years old, to sit on a bench at the entrance. I was able to arrange for our neighbor to come for them and take them to school.
What happened next, I did not know until their return home. At 15:30, they appeared on the doorstep and reported that they were very late for school. My neighbor rushed to help and followed them not from home, but from afar, and instead of 5 minutes the boys sat on the bench for 40 minutes … Listening further, I just went crazy with my stupidity, numb with horror and at the same time was proud of my sons!
While they obediently sat and waited on the bench for 40 minutes, a girl with two murky types approached them and asked to help them persuade her boyfriend to return to the clinic for treatment. Allegedly, he was afraid of doctors and hid in the toilet, and the boys could come in and talk to him, convince him that he is safe. Seriously, this dialogue was retelling to me by my children!
When my 10-year-old son politely replied, “No thanks,” the strangers did not lag behind. They continued to persuade them with the words: “Please, you can save his life by this.” The son three times, with pressure, rejected their request with his “No, thanks”, and only after that they finally left.
I listened to the story, growing cold, with a drooping jaw. Nevertheless, I was proud that my son remembered and applied our safety rule in practice. Because at that moment, when a neighbor drove up and the boys jumped into the car, the son saw a girl with two partners get into another car, and a third man calmly left the toilet and joined them! The hooligans immediately disappeared from sight in their car.
“Stop forbidding children to talk to strangers. Instead, teach the kids what types of adult strangers are safe for him. “
“Mom, I knew they were not good people,” the son said confidently. – Because they asked us for help. And adult strangers never ask children to help them. “
This is the rule that we teach children. Instead of “strangers”, they learn not to deal with “bad, cunning people” (in the original in English. “Tricky people”. – Approx. healthy-food-near-me.com). The concept of “tricky people” was created by American Patti Fitzgerald, the author of the program for teaching children safety without fear, the website Safely Ever After, Inc., books and trainings on this topic.
“Stop forbidding kids to talk to strangers,” Fitzgerald says. – One day the child may need to talk to a stranger. For example, with a policeman if he is lost. Instead, teach the children what types of adult strangers are safe for him. “
One of the main rules that helps to identify a dangerous stranger is the one that the child remembered: “Bad adults come up and ask young children for help.” Indeed, in fact, if an adult needs help, he will ask another adult for it. But not a child.
“We will not be able to be with children all the time and protect them from the dangers of this world. But we can remind them time after time of important rules of communication and strengthen their confidence when facing real life, ”concludes mom Jodie Norton.
Norton later added a blog entry. She reported to the police about suspicious individuals who molested her children. The police looked through the security cameras outside the hospital and opened a case to catch potential kidnappers.
What safety rules do you teach your child?