Stranger Danger!!

Recently, there have been a number of attempted child abductions in the area we live - meaning the town we live in and 3-4 towns close to us. I cringe as I read and hear about these attempts. Thankfully, all of the children have been taught well and have ran away! But cringe isn't even the word that would describe the way I felt today when I heard there was an attempted abduction just a BLOCK from my house. Yes - one short block!


That is WAY too close to home for this Mama Bear! Do you guys remember this Berenstain Bears book? I think I am going to go pick it up tonight. (If I can find it.)

We have had a few stranger-danger talks at our house. Like I said, this has been going on for a couple months. I don't feel that I have mastered the technique of talking about strangers though. I don't want to be scary. But I want them to know this is REAL. We've come up with a password that a driver would have to know in order for Bryce to get into a vehicle with them. The more I think about it though, I don't know that I like the whole "password" idea. I do not want him close enough to communicate with these monsters. And knowing my little trusting sweetheart, he would give them one guess and then be so excited to tell them the right answer! :)

I have explained that I would NEVER, EVER, EVER send someone he doesn't know to pick him up - ANYWHERE. NEVER. I told him if anyone ever tells him that I sent them to get him, to run and never get in a vehicle. I would never do that. Neither would Dad.

I have told him to scream and run as fast as he can back home (or to school, or to daycare, etc). I fought back tears as he looked at me with wide eyes and tears welting up and said "But what if I don't know how to get back home?" Ohh - heart wrenching! I told him to run to the closest house he recognizes or to a Mommy walking with her kids.

I ended up making it scary. I didn't want him to cry. I just want him to be safe. I'm looking for tips/tricks you have? What do you tell your kids? What do you remember being told as a kid? What sticks with you? (Leave a comment or email me.)

I'm also working on getting him to memorize our address and phone number. He almost has our address figured out. But you know what, we had it EASY as kids... we only had to remember a 4 digit phone number. He has to memorize a 10 digit number!! You know what else made it easy for us as kids? Those black stars they would put in house windows marking which houses were "safe" that we could run to when we were in trouble. Are you kidding me!?!? Who came up with that brilliant idea? Any fool could make a printout of a huge star and place it in their window! (Sorry - got a little off topic there. But you sure wonder why that idea didn't stick!! haha!)

Thanks for any advise you have!