It’s something I see everyday, people crossing the road in unsafe places. Unfortunately, the majority of these people are with young children, and it amazes me how cavalier they are, not only about their safety, but the child’s safety as well.
As responsible adults, our first instinct should be to protect our children, not put them in unnecessary danger. And just so everyone’s clear, we live in an area where we are never more than 100 meters away from the nearest traffic lights, and clearly marked and regulated crossings.
So why do these people cross away from these places? I don’t know, and if I tried to offer some reasons, they’d probably be wrong. So let’s just focus on teaching our own children proper safety skills so that they can live a long life.
First thing we did with Jay, my son, is to get him to hold hands whenever we were out. We’ve done this with him since he first started walking and continue it to this day. And even though he’s now 8, we still hold his hand a lot of the time when we are out and about walking. Not just when we are crossing or near roads, but just as a habit, so that when we are near busy roads he does it without thinking.
But that’s not enough, is it? What happens when we’re not around to hold his hand and guide him safely across the road. Well that’s when we move on to the second step of teaching road safety.
First we need to teach them to find a safe place to cross. Pedestrian crossings are obviously the best, and where we live are literally within a very short walk of wherever we are, but also finding safe places when there aren’t any is also a good habit to get in to. Especially for when we go back to Australia for holidays.
Next, we stop before crossing, and have a good look in both directions. Even at crossings it’s important to stop, look and listen. If it’s clear, then we can walk across, not run, and make sure we keep looking for traffic as we cross.
A good tip I’ve heard to reinforce these steps is to have our kids teach someone, or something else. Yes, I said something. Have you ever watched kids talking to there toys? Same principle. Have them teach their toys how to cross safely. Just set up an area in the house as a road and then have them teach and show their toys how to do it. Not only does this give us a chance to make sure they know and understand, it will also help them to remember and do it habitually, so that they don’t have to constantly think about it when they’re out in the real world.
What about you? Do you have any other tips for teaching road safety to your kids?
