Don't Be That Parent That Loses Your Child in Public

We have all seen them in the stores and at amusement parks, those lost children. They have been separated from their parents and cannot find them. Perhaps you have even helped a lost child throughout your travels. Experts warn parents that it is not the 1950's and all parents must be cautious regarding the safety of their children. There are so many people in the world now and unfortunately many unsafe ones, too.

Perhaps you can remember as a child holding your mothers hand out in public and crossing the street and in parking lots. Lately, as you drive through parking lots you will quickly notice small children walking along with a parent or nanny and the hand holding seems to be a thing of the past. The child may only be three or four years old and they are walking along behind cars with no one holding their little hand. Lots of parents are on their cell phones or distracted and not holding the hands of their children. It only takes a few minutes to hold a child's hand until they are safely out of a parking lot. The drivers of those cars cannot see such a small child that might be behind their vehicle. If it happens to be an SUV, all bets are surely off on seeing anything that is under three feet tall behind the vehicle.

The best advice one can give to anyone going out into public with a child is to pay attention. That cell phone that is ringing can wait and so can that latest text message. Your most important job as a parent is the safety of your children. Great advice from parents include not allowing the children to just jump out of their seats and fling open car doors. Telling the children who will be first out the car also helps, this way they know what to expect. Preschool and elementary children are made to line up and orderly move from one place to another throughout their schools, but somehow when these same children are with their parents they seem to take off running.

As a parent you need to stop the take off and running part of your adventure. It may include reviewing with the kids how it will work when you arrive at your destination. If this does not work, you may even need to place the kids back in the car and just go home. Letting them know that you expect a certain behavior because you need to keep them safe and that the cars backing up cannot see them due to their small size. It will most probably only take one time of your turning that car around and then they will see how serious you are about their behavior out in public. We have all heard the stories of the child that was run over in the mall parking lot or at the amusement park or zoo. Once this horrible act occurs you cannot change it, but you can just change a few things you do now while taking your children out in public so that your child does not become a statistic.

Jesus has loved basketball since he was in grade school. He used to love doing all sorts of basketball shooting drills and basketball drills for kids. Now he helps coach his own kids when they play basketball. It's a wonderful sport that he thinks everyone should be involved with.