Thursday, October 23, 2008

Children in the street

When you have young children, a natural fear is that they will run into the street and be hit by a car.  It is a natural fear because it happens far too often.  We have neighbors who are older, and I can't tell you how many times I have watched a 10 to 13-year old boy run into the street to chase a ball.  It is terrifying.

Therefore, it's important to teach your children at a young age that the street is dangerous. Today my childhood friend, J, and I discussed this subject.  I told her that we have a line we use at the end of our driveway & the children are not supposed to go past it.  They do reasonably well with this boundary.  For our youngest, who is now 22 months, we have to repeatedly tell her "no" & shout when she gets near the street.  J had an even better idea. Just brilliant!!  She said that she used an apple to show her 3 young children (all under 5) the dangers of the street.  She took the apple and threw it down into the street to show how it would smash and how cars would continue to hurt it.  Another idea is to use your pumpkin to illustrate this to your children.  It makes quite an impact when children have a visual! I am going to try it!

4 comments:

HoodMama said...

Brilliant. A little morbid, but I'm for sure trying it.

KK said...

OK, this is great. My little one ran out in front of a delivery truck the other day in front of her sister's ballet studio and you should have seen the faces of the New England moms when I spanked her little bottom. I am not a huge spanker but I really wanted her to remember never to do this again. I like the apple idea much better, but in the moment I just reacted!

Preppy Pettit said...

I am going to do this today!

Henley on the Horn said...

Pink & Green, you were smart to give her a spanking, and those other ladies could learn a few things from you:). I don't spank often, but it is needed at times. I am laughing that Melissa said it is a little morbid... very true. But, what a great idea!