Discussion:

Most people are good – including people you know and don’t know. But there are some people who might do things we don’t want them to do, so it’s important to know people safety strategies.

Who are your trusted adults?

What do you do if:

• A person comes to your front door and your parents aren’t there or are in the other room?
• An adult approaches and you and asks for help?
• You get lost in a park or at a store?
• Someone does something that makes you feel uncomfortable?
• A stranger asks you to get into their car or go somewhere with them?
• Someone you know (other than one of your trusted adults) asks you to get in the car or go somewhere with them?
• A friend asks you to do something you don’t want to do?

What does it mean to trust your intuition (the little voice inside your head/stomach)?

Notes to parents:

It is very important to always listen to what our kids tell us and take it seriously. They need to know that they can come to us with anything, no matter how big or how small. It helps to remain calm and, depending on the situation, view it as a learning opportunity to talk about people safety without being too reactive or alarmist. It doesn’t serve our kids to teach them to be overly fearful of strangers, as this might inhibit them from asking the right people for things they need and can also promote imaginative stories (but again, if our kids have stories to tell, let them know we are listening). Rather than be fearful, we can empower our children to be smart about strangers – and about people in general.

The reality is that most unsafe situations and abductions (involving both children and adults) occur with a familiar person rather than a stranger. In many cases having tools to react, escape, and be confident and vocal are very effective at preventing unwanted situations. The ROAR workshop gives us actions to take when needed.

I also suggest visiting kidpower.org for more discussion points and safety tips. *I don’t work for Kid Power but really appreciate their approach and philosophy. Other resources are BeHereforKids.org, kidsmartz.org, and netsmartz.org (online safety).

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