Parents everywhere are concerned with how to best teach their kids about avoiding strangers. You want your kids to be able to have fun playing outside in a park or in your yard, but what if a stranger tries to ask your child for help or directions? Teach your kids the golden rule if a stranger asks for help: ADULTS DON’T NEED HELP FROM KIDS. ADULTS SHOULD ASK ADULTS FOR HELP.
- Teach your kids to stay away from a stranger’s car. If an adult in a car tries to talk to your child, teach them that they should never move closer to the car.
- Your kids should never take a gift from a stranger, no matter how much they may want it. Teach your kids to ignore the person and walk away.
- Talk to your kids about the safe people in their lives. Make sure there is a neighbor they can trust if they are outside and need to run to a safe place.
- Kids should know to trust their instincts. If something feels wrong, it probably is wrong.
It’s important to sit down with your kids, no matter how young they are, and talk about safety.
Check out the Child Safety section of the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children’s site for more information on teaching your kids about strangers.
7 Comments on "Ask John Walsh: Keeping Your Kids Safe When Playing Outside"
cascade
I can really appreciate the words you share about how adults should be asking other adults for help. This makes perfect sense. I won’t let my child play outside alone, never. We either take the play elsewhere, where there are kids or I’m outside with her. If she has an overnighter friend and they want to go out front….so be it, but I watch from the windows, and then end up in the yard…myself, working on the bushes or yard trim. Now-a-days is calling for extra measures of safety and security, concerning our children. Never a safe day for alone play….not anymore. Keep up the life saving work J. Walsh . You and YOURS!
GenieT
My advice: keep on the lookout for anyone at all who may be an illegal drug abuser, because it is so deeply ingrained in America’s criminal druggie nonculture for them all to “see nothing,” to not even see the children who may be in trouble and in need of our help, that those ‘never-tell’ druggies probably know - and never tell - at all.
Teach children not to trust or talk to anyone who even might use drugs - to stay safe.
TonyaJ
Have you ever seen the commercial about the gps pet locater system? I often wonder WHY are we not implementing the same thing for our children. I’m not talking a collar around their necks to keep them safe, but a small tracking implant (similar to norplant for women and birth control). Doesn’t it seem as though this would help so many parents who lose their children and would give anything just to know where their body was? I’m sure that there is some privacy issue, so let them have it removed when they are old enough. I am a mother of two girls and it just seems like such an easy thing to do. I spend many nights hoping the doors are locked tight. That no one has seen my girls in the front yard and is now interested in harming them. I’m certain this would not alleviate those worries, but could help so many parents, children, families who have someone missing and they are desperate just to see them again. I apologize if this is not the forum for this, but we are talking about keeping our kids safe. I’d love to find out why it is that we are not allowed to pursue something of this nature….
amotherwhocares
I am a mother of 2 girls and a little boy my fear as a mother has always been those out there that want to hurt children and the more i think about it the more i worried well 1 day ago i learned that a level 3 sex offender moved in 10 blocks away from our home and only a few blocks away from the school that my children go to so now im more worried then ever i want to move and have my children safe and
why is it that someone who hurts children is able to move a few blocks away from parks and schools
mario small
i lost my 15yr old son coming from football practice at 600pm daytime by a gunshot wound to the head in from of me and the police havent done anything yet to look into this case, why because of his color, because every color homicide around here goes unsolved.
Jennifer
It is helpful information. A few years ago in front of my house with my front door open a man tried to lure my son into his car.We called the police and I tried to follow him in my truck.Unfortunately my city is very big and we couldn’t find him.Very scary and my son still talks about it.Watch your babies and don’t get too comfortable in your area.
alex
a guy in a black escolade tried to get my friend in his car but he kicked him in the private and we called the police he got arrested that day
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