How to Keep Your Child Safe When It’s Time for Them to Have More Freedom
This can be the start of a newfound freedom yourself as a parent; more nights out perhaps, or time alone with your partner, but it also comes with the worry of how you’re going to make sure your child is still safe without you around.
Communication
Developing and maintaining healthy communication channels with your child is more important than ever when they enter their teenage years. The only way you can make sure they’re safe when they’re out and about without you is to know where they are, what they’re doing, and to be available at all times on the phone if they need you. You have to be able to rely on each other to respond too, and you need to be able to communicate effectively rather than arguing, otherwise your child will feel less inclined to keep in touch.
Rules
You can’t always be in constant contact with them, otherwise it defeats the object of them having freedom, so it’s important to lay down some ground rules that you can both agree on before allowing them to roam free. For example, you can ask them to send you a text once an hour to let you know they’re ok, and the older they are and the more responsible they prove themselves to be, the more flexible you can be on this. Another rule that a lot of parents insist on is a curfew, as this helps you to make sure that your child is home safely before it goes dark.
Technology
The advent of technology designed around the issue of keeping your children safe, is a god send for parents. These days, you can not only track your children using the location features on their phones, but you can also get a GPS tracker, or a handy device called a Bluetooth tile.
These give you live updates on your child’s whereabouts so that you can make sure they are where they said they are going to be, as well as being a crucial solution if they get lost and cannot tell you where they are themselves. You can read about the difference between bluetooth tiles and real GPS trackers online, to see which would be the best fit for your family.
Letting your child take on the world alone can be a scary prospect, but there is plenty you can do to make sure you’re never too far away. Stay in touch regularly via your phones for yours and their reassurance, establish a set of rules regarding the time they have to be home by and how often they should contact you, and make sure they keep their phone handy so that they can pick up when you ring.
Make the most of new technical devices that allow you to track their movements too and plan before outings so that communication is always clear. For more parenting tips you could look at everymomspage.com and their brilliant articles, such as how to teach your kids about relationships.
