Safety secrets

Empowering your child to take care of him or herself is one of the most powerful safety secrets we can offer.

Empowerment means you teach them to make choices – good choices – for themselves. When you mentor them as a parent you actually guide them into learning to make good, positive choices for themselves on their own. When they can do this, they will truly be safe for a lifetime.

If your child never gets to decide much of anything for themselves, even at the youngest of ages, how do you think they could learn to choose the better action of whether to get in a car with someone they barely know for a ride home, or to go find a trusted adult?

In its simplest form, empowerment means your child feels like they have a measure of control over their life. They feel they can make their own decisions. Most kids don’t feel this ability. Most kids do not have it, either. Parents and adults are constantly making decisions for children:

When to eat
What to eat
When to get up
When to go to sleep
Where to go
Who to go with
What to do

The list can go on endlessly. Life for a child can feel completely out of their control. Kids will engage in a struggle with their parents to get some control of their lives. In doing so it usually comes across as conflict.

No! I don’t want to go!
I don’t like that!
I’m not eating that!
Stop it!
I don’t want to!
Leave me alone!

The secret to empowering your children, even at the youngest of ages, is in giving them their own choices to make. Give them alternatives to situations in their lives; let them make some of their own choices.

This too, can be pretty simple. For example, instead of serving them broccoli, ask them to choose between carrots, peas or broccoli or another vegetable. Give them a choice to make instead of just putting one on their plate. Instead of the green dress, ask your daughter which one she would like to wear. Instead of forcing your child into the brown shoes, ask them which ones they would like to put on today.

These are pretty simple examples, but this is about as easy as it gets in empowering your child. Giving your children choices is crucial in their development. It is crucial in their ability to keep themselves safe, too.

Making choices matters to kids. When you do this simple, easy thing, miracles will happen within them. An empowered child starts to feel good about him- or herself. And what would consistent, good feelings about themselves lead to?
Confidence!

Will your child always make good choices for him- or herself? No. That is where you, mum and dad, come into the picture. You, as a mentor to your child, can guide them through the array of choices they will face. You can guide them and teach them about good choices and the benefits of making good choices for themselves. It is what safe kids are all about.

By Joyce Jackson – a child safety expert, bestselling author, consultant, speaker and trainer.