Safety First: Introduction

I once said to one of my family members, “I feel like I am a pessimist, constantly looking around and anticipating impending danger!” She replied, “You’re not a pessimist, you’re a MOM!”

As a parent, it is part of our “job description” to keep our children safe. And that’s a huge job! Keeping them safe can include anything and everything from dressing weather appropriately to putting plug covers in the electrical sockets to teaching them to look both ways before crossing a street. And those are just three examples out of at least 100! Some days I feel as though I am almost sheltering my children – not only do I want to protect them, but I also don’t want to scare them about possible dangers. Over the past couple of years though, I have had a shift in my thoughts about this. As my daughter gets older, instead of always sheltering her from danger, I am now trying to educate her and prepare her for handling dangerous situations.

Since this is such a huge topic, as well as such an important one, I am not going to try to limit myself to one post (and you know how long-winded I can be – whoa, would that be a long one!). Instead I am going to add this as a new topic and write posts about “Safety First” as things come up in my own children’s lives. And I hope that you will write comments and share your own experiences and what has and has not worked with your children. We can all learn together to find the best ways to keep our kids safe!