Protecting Your Children in This Modern World

Let's go way back in the day together, back to 1980, in fact. Slave had this hard hittin' jam called 'Watching You'. Now, I've previously alluded to the fact that I was born a nerd. The cover of that album, Stone Jam... and, trust me, I'm going somewhere with this... it had this fat guy made out of stone on it that looked just like this guy, Pee Wee, that lived around the way. The only real difference, aside from being made from stone, was the lack of a dark band across the nose. Pee Wee was about 19 years old at the time but, back when he was 9 or 10, he had gotten a hold of some Drano and you can figure out the rest. God was good though. It all erupted right out of him. He really ended up fairly well off except for a very dark band across the bridge of his nose where the chemical and stomach acid had burned out a path of ventilation. It most resembled the kind of black swipe a football player would wear under the eye. Being the nerd, or analytical child, I paid great attention to the tale of what happened to Pee Wee. As any analytical would do, I immediately began formulating a solution to this dilemma. Even as an 8 yr old, I could easily figure that it was best to keep cleaning supplies out of the reach of children. As an adult, I now know that there's also more. We'll get to that.

Does anyone remember back when you could purchase bleach in packets that were pretty well equivalent to today's salad dressing packets? They were made for convenience. Convenience often must discard safety. Concomitant to this, foolishness is bound up in the heart of a child. Kids will do some unimaginable things with even the safest of products. It is imperative to put distance between kids and dangerous products.

Here's a bad example with a happy ending. We used those bleach packets. Now, go figure, I would continually ask, "Why is it that bleach will turn all kinds of things white but, not your skin?" No one could give the answer so, one fateful day, I foolishly asked my aunt, April. She was only 6 years older and lived more at our house than at hers. She was really more like my older sister. Understand, she's my favorite aunt... also my only aunt but, she made the cut. She said to me, "That's 'cause they don't know how to do it. I know how to make it turn you white. I'm gonna do it. I'm gonna turn you white."

"Aaaahhhhhhhhh! Mommy Mommy Mommy, help me! I don't wanna be white!"

I So believed her. I just kept screaming and running from her all throughout the apartment as she gave chase, all the while brandishing and crinkling that package of bleach.

"I'm gonna make you white. You're gonna be white for the rest of your life."

It's hilarious to think about it now. Like I said, this had a happy ending. No matter how many times this happened, the packets never burst, no one lost and eye, and I'm still Black. I only have one little white spot and that's been an unmixed spot since birth. The patch that belongs to it is a few inches over.

Anyway, beyond keeping dangerous products out of the reach of children, one thing that can be done is to impress upon manufactures the importance of integrated safety features. It's a good idea to write, call, and make suggestions. Help manufacturers see why it is good to eliminate or limit the production and or distribution of certain products before widespread injury and litigation. I don't know where those bleach sauce packets may be found today and that's a good thing.

OK, so, can you remember Lawn Darts? Who the heck thought it was right for any child to be able to launch a salvo of unguided missiles capable of penetrating a human skull? Today's military would refer to these as Kinetic Energy Weapons. I joke with my daughter that, "When I was a kid, toys were made of sharp sticks and shards of broken glass." It's almost true though. Click-Clacks, two hardened plastic billiards on a string with a stick at the fulcrum, functioned only as weapons to facilitate muggings and oddly addictive wrist breakers. No matter how many times you'd fall to your knees writhing in pain, you'd always get back up to start clacking again.

Dangers like these require an additional tactic to keep your children safe. Bestow upon your children critical thinking skills to help them make good choices. I know that this is unpopular in today's pluralistic and humanistic society. No matter, right is right and wrong is wrong. Your children are going to need to know how to choose rightly when you are not there. I suggest regularly giving them an array of good, better, and best to choose from. Help them to experience and come to personally own the rewards of making good choices. This helps you, as a parent, as well. You'll better learn and understand your child's strengths, weaknesses, and tendencies. It also helps you to make choices, regarding your child, that are based upon fact and not emotionally frosted dreams or domineering Gestapoism.

Deeply rooted in all of this is the matter of obedience. Consider this. Not too long in the past, a friend had come over to our place with her boys. This was her first visit since we had moved. Our double parlor is attached directly to the kitchen through a single doorway. As we all stood in the kitchen, her youngest, closest to our boy in age, ran across the kitchen to our daughter's room. He wanted to see what she was up to. Our friend was amazed to see that our toddler stop on a dime right there at the doorway. Though clearly longing and confused about the situation, he never crossed over or attempted to. We explained to her that our first line of defense for our children's sake is teaching them to obey us. We realize that God has put us in their lives to benefit them and that's just what we want and strategically plan to do on a regular basis. From the kitchen over, our home is a plague of 'Instant Death'. In the past year, the news has reported, a child roasted in a dishwasher mishap. There's the gas oven, trash, knives, meds, the toilet in the bathroom off the kitchen, hot water, heavy objects, and on and on to be concerned about. It is a cold hard fact that no measure of preparation or prevention can withstand disobedience.

Certainly, you love your children as we do ours. Who doesn't want to see the best for their children. This is why I have offered this short bit of advice to help you in working toward this great hope. To summarize, teach your children to obey you, prepare and make preparations for their safety and success, and teach them how to choose wisely. Clearly, there's still more to the story as well as the fact is that each of these three areas could be greatly expounded upon. Still, if you have not discovered this strategy, try it. Need help? Ask questions. Have a Great Day!