10 Ways to protect your kids from Abduction and stranger danger. So this Wednesday, a very serious situation happened in south Philadelphia. An attempted abduction of a 10 year old girl walking with her brother, she fought off her attacker and he left her alone. Great Girl!! Everything was caught on video tape you can watch the attempted abduction happen below.
**NOTE: It is alarming graphic video so avoid watching it with your children- they cant process the images as an adult would.
What did the 10year old girl do? Yell Bite, Scratch, kick, and scream. Everything you hope your child would do in this situation. But would your have done the same ?
Yesterday, I was asked to have a discussion with Tracey Donaldson from NBC10 and other local mommy bloggers Hillary from My Scraps, Karla from BellyButtonBoutique and Linda from FrugalPhillyMom about this scary situation. How does this affect your parenting and how are you going to talk to your kids about this?
View more videos at: http://nbcphiladelphia.com.
I think, I live in a safe area, this does not happen where I live? Right??? True South Philly is 45 minutes from my home, but the perpetrator was from North Philly 10 minutes from my home. The parent of the little girl thought they lived in a safe area things like this, never happened there either.
The Truth is Crime and bad people live everywhere. We must make our kids aware and safe when we are not there.
I did speak with kids prior to going to the interview and ask them what they would do if approached by a stranger who tries to take them. My 11 year old son said .. all the right things fight yell. My 7 year old daughter on the other hand was not sure. Now my son is away from me, my daughter not so much, because she is 7. Time for me to talk to her.
I do not want my kids to be scared the world because has too much to offer. I think that you can make your kids aware but not scared. I want my son to walk to the store and experience life. If you read my post about camping I do let the kids be free, (we use the buddy system) Long as they are smart.
This is my strategy with my kids: Stranger Danger (these tips are for a older kid that is getting more Freedom):
10 Ways to Avoid Abduction and Stranger Danger
- Don’t Talk to Strangers
- Walk aware Listen for who and what is around you
- Do not walk and text or listen to loud music
- Walk in daylight no dark- avoid areas without people
- Do Not go near cars that pull over, do not help people looking for directions.. let an adult help them.
- Buddy System
- Never go to someone’s house without telling a parent (including a friend)
- Teach them how to YELL low, forceful and PRACTICE (My daughter feels strange practicing yelling all the more reason to do so)
- Show them how to fight Tell them it is OK to BITE,HIT,SCRATCH,AND KICK. (let then know to hit in the private areas)
- Then run and tell and adult!! Police and Parents are there to protect you. Most people are good but there are a few bad ones, you cant tell- So trust the funny feeling in your gut.
Then Practice Yelling and fighting
Here are some resources I found on Child Safety:
- Take a quiz to see how aware your kids are Stranger Danger quiz
- This is a stranger danger video it is a little dated but covers a lot without being scary Stranger Danger Video
- If your kids gets lost here are some great tips Missing Children
- This is a great resource kid friendly site for Internet Strangers or Internet Safety Quiz
What are your tips? please share in comments so other readers can learn from you.
Please talk to your kids and make them aware.
Please Note: The girl was able to identify her attacker and he is now behind bars awaiting trial. Because of her strength and technology this crime was quickly brought to justice. She is Amazing!!!
Hi friend- great post. I think every parent hates talking to their kids about this stuff. I know I do. And after a day full of looking at tweets about the nut in Colorado and the Batman movie- this is just another reminder that there are some bad people outside of this happy bubble I live in. Thanks for the reminder to teach them more about this topic so if they come across that not so good- Joker like character- they are prepared.
Thanks for your comment. This week has been a hard parenting week. I have not allowed mine to watch the news this week. Images are too horrific with parents screaming in anguish.
Although the video was disturbing, the girl did everything right. Good for her. Did they find the person who tried to abduct her?
Yes Connie, they found the guy because everything was on tape. She identified him the next day. Strong girl
Where I live (which isn’t too far from you) there have been numerous attempted abductions in the past two years. It’s a difficult subject to discuss with kids but an absolutely necessary one!
See I would have thought where you live would be safe.. it happens everywhere.
Thanks for this post. This is a hard video to watch, but this is a very important subject. I recently had this discussion with my own kids. I’ve made sure that we’ve defined “stranger.” I think they pictured a stranger as a mean, monsterish person. We talked about how strangers can look really nice. Another thing I tell my kids is that strangers should never ask them for help–that is simply inappropriate. I tell them if any stranger asks for help finding a lost dog, or help carrying something, they need to run and scream.
Scary world.
I am so glad you comment on the post and you bring up very good points. We have been having a lot of the different talks lately since my son is 11. With every thing that happened in the past few weeks I just want the kids to be aware. Thanks for commenting.
Great post with some great info & reminders. This is definitely something we need to talk over with our kids regularly!
I find myself very disturbed by the term “stranger danger” and the advice not to talk to strangers, though. I encourage my daughter to be outgoing, hospitable, and friendly – as I think these are all good qualities for an adult to have. And, we develop our adult personalities & character as children. I find myself disturbed when other adults tell her “Don’t talk to strangers!” I believe about 80% of the harm done to children is done by relatives & friends rather than by strangers.
I remember a couple of years ago, I girl of about 10 tried to say “Hi” to me at the grocery when she was with her parents, and I was with my child and obviously no threat to her. The child was quite harshly reprimanded by her father – and I found the whole thing disturbing.
Is there some way to teach our kids when they should be alarmed by the behavior of a dangerous stranger, without teaching them to run away in fear from the little old lady who needs help or wants to say “Hi” at the grocery?
Aw, this was a really nice post. In idea I wish to put in writing like this moreover – taking time and precise effort to make an excellent article… but what can I say… I procrastinate alot and by no means appear to get one thing done.
Hello there I’m so excited I found your weblog, I truly found you by mistake, whilst I was looking on Aol for something else, Anyways I’m here now and would just like to say cheers for a marvelous publish and a all round thrilling blog (I also love the theme/design), I don’t have time to browse it all in the moment but I have saved it as well as additional your RSS feeds, so when I’ve time I’ll be back to read much more, Please do keep up the superb work.