A SERIOUS CONVERSATION ABOUT KIDS SAFETY

Squeezing this one a little tighter tonight.

Have you ever thought you lost one of your kids?

It’s only happened to me one other time, and let me tell you - it’s TERRIFYING. 

I had a work call this afternoon. So Jayson took Andi to her soccer practice & to run some errands so I could take my call. 

When Jayson got home we started talking, and after a little while I ask him where Phoebe is. 

“I don’t know, I just got home, did she not come back from walking the dog?”

ME - “I didn’t know she went for a walk with the dog, I thought she was with YOU.”

Panic. 

It’s almost dark by this time and this means Phoebe has been gone for nearly two hours if she left before Jayson left the house. We’ve let her take the dog for walks around the neighborhood before, our neighborhood has lots of kids that are always outside playing so I’ve always felt it was safe; BUT she’s never been gone that long. 

We both head out to drive around the neighborhood. 30 minutes later, still no Phoebe. We text neighbors, keep calling one another back and forth to see if she had been found, nothing. 

“Should we call the police?” 

Right as I’m about to hang up the phone to call the police Jayson says he sees her. 

HUGE SIGH OF RELIEF. 

Then anger. 

MY GOODNESS I’m so grateful Phoebe is HOME and SAFE! But I don’t think that came across the best in talking with her. Lots of tears. Frustration. Not one of my finer mom moments. 

Clearly we won’t be letting our six year old take the dog for walks anymore. The whole time I was driving around trying to find my daughter I kept thinking how DUMB it is for us to let a 6 year old take the dog for a walk. 

BUT, we also need to have a serious conversation about SAFETY. In texting the neighbors & hearing back from them when they last saw her, I can see she is NOT REALLY PAYING ATTENTION to potential danger and maybe a little over trusting. 

Moms - how do you have that convo with young kids? I don’t want to SCARE her, but I kind of want to scare her, ya know? Any good children books to read about not talking to strangers? I need to get the point across to Phoebe without making her cry, and without ME getting overly emotional. I feel like Mack & Andi were easier to have serious conversations with at this age, but they also weren’t as OUTGOING as Phoebe, they were more reserved at this age. 

Advice welcome! But not judgement. Thanks.  

And here's a few tips I pulled off of google that I liked.