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By Joyce
Jackson
When your child goes out
of your home they are in the realm of offline or direct sexual
predators. In your neighborhood, at your parks, on your streets and
outside the fences of your schools, direct sexual predators are
surreptitiously hunting for children. You can choose to spend every
second supervising your child between birth and high school. How
practical is that? How much does that instill in your child personal
responsibility and growth? There is a better way.
These predators are hard to spot because they look like normal
individuals. Your child can encounter threatening situations simply
by playing in your yard with you in the house. The best way to
protect your child is to teach them how to be able to keep
themselves safe.
Step one is for your child to be able to know how to deal with
strangers and how to deal effectively with them when approached by
one. Your child must be able to respond and stay away from
developing dangerous situations as well as getting out of one if
caught in it. They must also be able to stay calm, focus and apply
any number of safety techniques if a situation rapidly gets out of
control.
We have Five Secrets for playing outside that you can teach your
child. They can use them immediately and be a little safer when you
are not around. They apply to any outdoor situation including times,
like at the park, when you are close but not directly next to your
child.
So, here are The 5 Secrets For Playing Safely Outside.
Secret #1: Teach Your Child To Pay Attention To Things That Seem
Out Of Place.
Teach your child to be on the look out for things that occur that
are out of the ordinary. Tell them it is "OK" for them to come tell
you when they see something different. Say it and mean it. It does
not matter what it is, just get them in the bait of telling you
about things they see that just don't seem normal to them.
Things out of the ordinary are things like people moving through
your neighborhood that are not normally there, cars moving much more
slowly up and down your street than usual, vehicles repeatedly
driving up and down your street or an unrecognizable ice cream truck
appearing out of nowhere one afternoon.
Secret #2: Teach Your Child How To Sit Properly When Playing.
Sitting properly means your child has their back is straight, head
high and shoulders straight even when they are looking around or
down. Show your child how to sit and play with their legs crossed
and back straight. Sitting on their knees or with them bent to the
side is also very effective for quick movement as long as their back
is straight.
This sitting posture allows your child the ability to spot things
out of the ordinary and gives them an advantage if they need to
stand up quickly.
Secret #3: Teach Your Child To Get To Their Feet.
Quickly And Tell You About Things That Are Not Normal
In a potential
threatening situation a child needs to be able to get up fast and
move quickly yet steadily. We teach kids to move fast and we teach
them to do it under control. It starts with being able to get up
properly off the ground. With good focus skills they can learn to do
this easily and will be able to do it with a great deal of calm
control.
The way most kids get up opens them up for being blindsided in an
attack or abduction. Just watch your kids when they are watching TV.
When they get up they usually stick their bum in the air first, put
their hands on the ground and point their head down as they push
themselves up with their arms. This method affords your child
absolutely no protection or ability to see anything or anyone.
Teach them how to stand up so they can keep their heads up and eyes
alert and up. This means they stand up without bending over and
without placing their hands on the ground. They can do this by
raising up to their knees first with head and shoulders straight,
then placing a knee out at ninety degrees to their torso and then
rotating up using the hips to a full standing position.
The end result is a child upright and alert with head up, shoulders
back and ready to move quickly if required.
Secret #4: Teach Your Child To Look People, Especially Adults,
Directly In The Eyes.
Teach your child to look at people directly in the eyes, especially
adults. Kids need to learn to look adults directly in the eyes. Very
few children look adults right in the eyes when they are talking to
them. Kids are naturally intimidated by adults because we are bigger
and stronger than they are. It is just a natural thing, but you can
teach your child to have the confidence to look anyone in the eyes.
Looking someone in the eyes does many things for a child. One, it
projects confidence that anyone approaching the child can see. Two,
it allows the child some time to assess the intentions of the
approaching individual. Three, a small child squarely and
confidently looking at an approaching stranger in the eyes, can give
the child an extra split second advantage in fleeing a dangerous
situation if that stranger is taken by surprise with the intense
gaze of that small child.
Secret #5: Teach Your Child To Listen To Their Instincts.
Another tool your child's safety arsenal is teaching them that they
have two brains, the one in their head and one in their belly. We
call the one in the belly the "Belly Brain." Adults know this as
their "gut instinct."
Kids need to learn to listen to their Belly Brain. It is rarely, if
ever, wrong. Kids have this gut feeling too, but they need some help
in learning how to listen to it and use it to keep themselves safe.
Teach your child that the Belly Brain works for them. Teach them how
to listen to it. Help your child to distinguish between their "Head
Brain" and their Belly Brain.
In our classes we show the kids how their Head Brain can sometimes
trick them. We use imagination and storytelling techniques that
enable the children to build up a great, exciting tale about a
shadow they saw dance across a wall. It's the same when kids think
monsters are in their bedroom closet or under the bed. We show them
how their Head Brain makes these stories up.
Reinforce the Belly Brain as the alarm clock for potentially
dangerous situations. Teach your child to trust and always listen to
it at all times. You can show your kids how to recognize the
uneasiness in their stomach without panic, alarm and worry. When
kids tune into their Belly Brain they are more tuned in detecting
uncomfortable situations, situations with questionable adults and
inappropriate behavior.
Kids naturally feel uncomfortable with inappropriate questions and
behaviors they are around. We simply show them how to be alert to it
with their Belly Brain.
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