Ensure your children’s safety this festive season
The festive season has arrived, and parents will be travelling to enjoy the holidays and others will leave children home alone.
KwaThema Community Police Forum chairman, Mxolisi Kota, gives tips on what parents can do to ensure the safety of their children when they are home alone.
n Stay in touch: call children throughout the day to ask how they are and what they are doing.
n Ask children to check in before they leave the house and to call again when they return.
n Keep children connected: post important numbers by the telephone, including parents’ work and cell phone numbers, the doctor’s office, and a neighbour or a nearby relative who can help children quickly if they need it.
n Inform your neighbours that you will be away and ask them to check on how your children are doing while you are still away.
n Practice what to do in an emergency: teach children how to dial 10111 or any other emergency numbers and when to do it.
n Provide them with a neighbour’s contact number who they can easy get hold of should something threatening their safety happens.
n Test them by asking questions as if someone is trying to get in the house or they get hurt and if they want to play at a friend’s house, what they should do.
n Set firm rules: make it clear what children are allowed to do and what they are not allowed to do.
Make sure your children are ready
All children mature differently, so there is no precise age when they are ready to stay home alone.
This makes the decision to leave children alone even harder for parents.
However, there are questions parents can ask themselves to help determine if their children are ready.
Can your children
n Be trusted to go straight home after playing at a neighbour’s house.
n Easily use the telephone, locks, and kitchen appliances,
n Follow rules and instructions well?
n Handle unexpected situations without panicking?
n Stay home alone without being afraid?
n Say their full name, address, and telephone number?
