Teaching Children How to Protect Themselves

As a parent, you cannot be with your child 24/7. This becomes even more true as they grow older and become involved in more activities outside the home. To protect them from the many threats and dangers they’ll face, you need to arm them with the ability to protect themselves when you are not around.

One of the greatest threats your child will face when he/she is not around you is peer pressure to engage in negative or harmful behaviors (doing something dangerous, taking drugs, cheating, engaging in criminal behavior, etc.). One fundamental way to reduce the influence peer pressure can have on children is to help them develop a positive moral foundation early on so they intuitively know what is right and what is wrong. You can accomplish this by teaching social skills and modeling positive moral behaviors yourself. Then, you may want to reinforce this teaching/modeling with spiritual or religious instruction.

In addition to negative peer pressure, children will experience societal pressures to achieve positive goals — getting straight “A’s,” making the sports team, scoring high in a music competition or getting into a good college, for instance. You can empower your child by teaching coping skills that will help him/her effectively deal with stressful, pressure-filled situations. You should also try to maintain a strong, supportive relationship with your child by talking often and keeping the lines of honest communication open.

Children can be incredibly resilient, but they can also be quite vulnerable at times. They look to their parents for cues about how to handle potentially dangerous situations. This is why it is so important for parents to model positive behaviors for ​them.