Safety Tips for Kids

As parents prepare for the start of a new school year, teaching children how to be safer needs to be at the top of their list of things to do. An analysis by the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children of attempted abductions during the past five years found that children are at most risk when going to and from school or school related activities.

Parents and other adults can help keep children safe by following these ten tips

1.     Teach your children to always TAKE A FRIEND with them when walking or biking, and stay with a group while standing at the bus stop. Make sure they know which bus to ride.

2.     Walk the route to and from school with your children pointing out landmarks and safe places to go if they're being followed or need help. Teach your children they should NEVER TAKE SHORTCUTS and always stay in well-lit areas.

3.     It is not safe for young children to walk to and from school, even in a group. Parents should always provide supervision for young children to help ensure their safe arrival to and from school. If your children wait for a bus, wait with them or make arrangements for supervision at the bus stop.

4.     Teach your children that if anyone bothers them, makes them feel scared or uncomfortable to trust their feelings and immediately get away from that person. Teach them it is ok not to be polite and IT IS OK TO SAY NO.

5.     Teach your children if anyone tries to take them somewhere they should RESIST by kicking and screaming, try to run away and DRAW ATTENTION by kicking and screaming "This person is trying to take me away" or "This person is not my father/mother."

 
6.     Teach your children NOT TO ACCEPT A RIDE from anyone unless you have said it is ok in that instance. If anyone follows them in a vehicle they should turn around, go in the other direction, and run to a trusted adult who may help them.

7.     Teach your children that grownups should NOT ASK CHILDREN FOR DIRECTIONS, they should ask other adults.

8.     Teach your children to NEVER ACCEPT MONEY OR GIFTS from anyone unless you have told them it is ok to accept in each instance.

9.     Make sure the school has current and accurate emergency contact information on file for your children and confirm names of those authorized.

10.   Always know where your children will be. Teach your children to always CHECK FIRST before changing their plans before or after school. Teach your children to never leave school, with anyone unless they CHECK FIRST with you or another trusted adult, even if someone tells them it is an emergency.

Children should be taught to trust their feelings. They need to know that if someone makes them feel scared, uncomfortable, or confused, they should tell a parent, guardian, or trusted adult.

Toddler & Tiara. Have They Gone to Far?

Toddlers and Tiaras has been continually controversial, but when Wendy Dickey dressed her 3-year-old daughter, Paisley, like Julia Roberts' streetwalker character in Pretty Woman. Complete with thigh-high black boots, white tank top, skintight blue mini skirt and lookalike blonde wig, Paisley imitates the character. Although Dickey told TMZ that Paisley's provocative pageant costume was "meant to be funny [and] not sexual at all," the Parents Television Council isn't laughing.

The Parents Television Council has reacted with outrage. "Whether you love or loathe child beauty pageants, everyone should agree that sexualizing a three-year-old little girl is wrong," Melissa Henson, the director of communications and public education for the PTC. "But that is exactly what the TLC network has done. 
"Such brazen and wanton material should qualify as child exploitation or abuse," Henson added. "Instead of creating ratings-friendly buzz, TLC engendered outrage among millions of parents and grandparents who are tired of seeing children exploited for ratings and robbed of their innocence by a greedy entertainment industry that will stop at nothing to make a buck."

According to RadarOnline.com, the Parents Television Council stated, “We have a serious problem when a network formerly known as The Learning Channel features a toddler, who probably hasn't learned to read is showing off her sexy strut. The Parents Television Council went on to say “There's no question, TV executives are complicit in robbing these small kids of their childhood. For years we've seen adult sexuality being inappropriately and aggressively foisted on innocent young children, but children today are being sexualized at younger and younger ages. All available data suggests they will suffer for it later in life.”
The audience and judges enjoyed her performance and expressed it with cheers and applauds. But not everyone agreed, one mom whose daughter was competing with Paisley also slammed the tot's tight, midriff-baring costume. "Us pageant moms already take a huge rap for what we're doing to our little girls," she said. Most of the young girls featured on the TLC show wear fake hair, "flippers" (fake teeth), heavy makeup and get professionally spray tanned. "[But] it's outfits like that the give us a bad rap... I would never, ever do that to my little girl."
Despite her objections, Paisley went on to win the highest title -- "Grand Supreme" -- in her age group of the pageant.