A mum has shared her story about how a family stay safe mantra saved her two young boys from a potentially dangerous situation.
When Mum Jodie Norton, who writes the blog Time Well Spent, felt a searing pain in her ovaries she rushed to hospital with her four kids, not expecting the day would become a lesson in what to do when kids are approached by strangers.
While her eldest boys, aged 8 and 10, were waiting outside on a hospital bench for a lift to school from a neighbour, they were approached by a woman and two men who had a suspicious request.
“While on that bench, they were approached by an adult female and two punk males who asked them if they’d help them out by going into the bathroom where her boyfriend was hiding from the doctor and see if they could convince him to come out and get treated,” Jodie wrote on her blog.
The group continued asking the boys for help: “Please? You could really save his life if you’d just go in that bathroom and tell him it’s safe to come out.”
However her boys replied, “No, thank you” over and over before the trio finally relented.
“Shortly afterward,” wrote Jodie, “the neighbour showed up and my boys jumped in his car, but, not before they saw a third adult male come out from the bathroom, jump into the car with these other three hooligans and drive off. My mouth hung open the entire time they relayed this account.”
Jodie credits her boys’ refusal to ‘help’ with the “Tricky People” concept she taught them.
The tricky people rule is simple: only ‘tricky’ people ask kids for help. If a safe adult needs help, they’ll ask another adult and not a child.
“Mom,” said her son CJ. “I knew they were tricky people because they were asking us for help. Adults don’t ask kids for help.”
The tricky people concept is a new way of framing ‘stranger danger” pioneered by Pattie Fitzgerald of Safely Ever After.
“Stop telling your kids not to talk to strangers,” says Pattie. “They might need to talk to a stranger one day. Instead, teach them which sorts of strangers are safe.”
The experience reinforced Jodie’s belief that safety rules need to be implemented and refreshed regularly:
“Hold family meetings where you talk about and role play these concepts periodically,” she wrote. “This experience has made me grateful that we had gone over this in the past, but even more so, it’s made me determined to continue going over these stay safe rules. Regularly.”
