Summer Safety Tips

With summer right around the corner and kids out of school for a month or so, some will not always be supervised. For whatever reasons some kids are old "enough to be left alone for the day, some have older siblings watching over things while Mom and Dad work, and some are with other types of sitters. I have written several articles about how to keep your child occupied during the summer while still learning and having fun. However there are something's we need to remember to keep our kids safe during their summer fun times.

If your child is old enough to be home alone and will be pretty much unsupervised for the whole day or evening, remember to set-up your internet blocks or parental blocks. Educate your kids as to what they are permitted to look at, who they are allowed to socialize with online, and add in what is absolutely unacceptable and will not be permitted. If you need to, make a list to keep near the computer as a reminder. It maybe necessary to laminate the list you make and staple it to the front of their computer monitor. Okay, that was a joke but laminating it and putting close to their screen where it is always visible and a parental reminder when you are not there.

Remind all of your children not to answer the telephone and if they do happen to answer the phone then be sure that they know never to let the person on the other end know that they are home alone. You can solve this issue a lot with Caller ID's or teach them how to screen the phone calls with an answering machine. The most important thing is that they never give personal info over the phone and they do not let on that they are alone. This is a great tip no matter the time of year or season.

If you live in a neighborhood that is close knit or a gated type of community, be sure that your children know that, that is not necessarily a guarantee that someone that is unfamiliar with the neighborhood or possibly someone that could cause them harm will not be in the area. Make your children understand that they should never speak to strangers and they should never go anywhere with someone they do not know. If you are in close knit community talk with your neighbors and ask them to keep an eye and an ear out for your children during the day. Ask a neighbor to pop over and check on your kids, or ask your neighbors if they see your kids outside playing then to keep a closer eye then normal on them. I do this a lot during the summer when we are out at the lake for example. I always pay attention to which kids run by and where they were running to. We had a scare with our oldest son a couple years ago, where no one knew where he ran off to. We went into panic mode worrying that he had gotten to close to the water, or that he had fallen asleep somewhere while playing hide and seek with the other kids. Luckily we found him at a neighbors house playing with their puppies. The neighbors assumed we knew he had ran over and did not think anything about him coming over to play since this was normal in our community.

Another tip that goes with the above. Make sure that all of your neighbors have all of your phone numbers so that if you need to be reached they can easily reach you if something goes wrong or if they need to check in with you about something.

If you live in a small community or even a larger community that you drop your kids off for the day to run around town with their friends then have an extra cell phone that is fully charged to leave with your kids. Make sure they understand that when that phone rings that they answer or threaten to send a search party right away. If this is too much responsibility for them then make sure they understand that the days of staying around town with their friends during the day will be cut short and happen no more!

If you have an older child that looks after younger siblings then set your own personal family rules. Then make another laminated list with all of the contact info for local authorities and all of your numbers, also add the home address and home phone number. If there is a crisis of some sort we all can forget the important information that may be needed. It is also handy for this to keep foods and snacks that are easily made in a microwave, plenty of sandwich material, jellos, and such. Last thing you need is an older child getting distracted and trying to make food for the other kids to just end up burning your house down with the stove or oven.

If you hire a sitter for kids through the summer time be sure the sitter has a similar laminated list with all the important information that they may need. If your sitter maybe taking your children out of the home for whatever reason, have the sitter call you when they are leaving, when they arrive at their destination, when are leaving the area and when they are back at the original location. With all the news stories the last few years of sitters and parents alike leaving kids in the car simply because they forgot they were there, then this could be a little friendly reminder that they are watching children!

All kids deserve a break and deserve to have fun during the summer and any other break times during the year. However we must think of safe ways to accomplish this. Put everyone's mind at ease, take a few extra steps in your day to get everything understood and organized for everyone. Most of all enjoy your summer and stay safe all year round.