How can you teach kids about safety and security without scaring them?

Nothing is more important than the safety of your home, family and livelihood. Setting up security and safety expectation with your children should start when they are young.

These lessons should be reinforced through communication and observation throughout their childhood and adolescent years.

How can you ensure you have the safety and security of your home and family covered? Here are six effective ways you can install a sense of safety and security in your home that will stick.

Do A Home Safety Check

The first thing you can do is check the safety of your home. If something is missing, you can fix it straight away or make a note to tackle it later at a specific time.

Items that you should check include:

• Your smoke alarm batteries. This should be done twice a year. If you don’t regularly do this, add it to your calendar. Your smoke alarm should be able to be heard from every room in the house.
• The temperature of your hot water thermostat should be at a maximum of 50 degrees celsius.
• Make sure you have a safety switch or mains-operated circuit breaker.
• If you have a pool, check the fence and self-locking gate meet the minimum standard requirements.
• Do the entries to your balcony have safety guards installed? If not, consider installing some. Always supervise your child when they are on a balcony.
• Do you lock your windows? Particularly with upper-storey windows, make sure they are secure and can’t be opened by children. Low windows shouldn't open more than 4 inches. Consider installing window stops or window guards for extra safety.
• Lock away tools and machinery such as lawnmowers that can potentially harm your kids. This keeps the kids safe, but also reduces the likelihood that these items will be stolen or used to break into your home.
• Use doorstops or door holders on doors and door hinges to prevent injuries to hands.
• Install safety latches on all cabinets and drawers you want to keep children out of. Anything that could be harmful, place out of reach and lock it up!

These checks should be done no matter what age your kids are. By doing this, you can reduce the chance of series injury to your child.

Do A Home Security Check

Once you have covered the basics of making your home safe for you kids, you now need to focus on make sure that you can keep unwanted intruders out and your children safely inside. Do these check to protect your family home from burglars:

• Do the locks on your doors and windows operate correctly? If not, get them replaced or repaired.
• Get locks for windows that can’t be opened easily by small children.
• Install child-resistant locks or handles on doors to areas you don’t want easily accessible to kids. This can include your laundry door, garage door, or the door to your baby room to prevent other children making unsupervised visits.
• Lock the garage. Most people forget to do this, however, many break-ins occur through the garage. Also, with items such as paint thinners, antifreeze, gardening tools, supplies, insecticides and other hazards it is not a safe place for children.
• Are your front and back doors of solid construction? Solid wood and metal doors are hard to break through. Make sure you don’t have any glass windows near your entrances where a burglar can break the window and turn the door handle from the inside.
• Do you have security lighting? Consider getting some of these for your home. At a minimum, have your back and front doors covered. If the sensors detect movement, they will shine a light on the designated area causing the intruder to think twice about sneaking around you home.
• Do have a working security alarm? A security alarm system is an excellent deterrent. If you don’t have one, I recommend getting one installed.
• Get to know your neighbours. Neighbours can keep an eye on the house or look after the kids if you are away. Consider joining your local neighbourhood watch.

By making sure you have these security precautions in place, you will have a solid security foundation for your home.

Teach Your Children About Safety And Security

Children can be taught a lot about the basics of home safety and security from a very young age.

It can start as basic as picking up their toys so they don’t remain on the floor as a trip hazard. By putting bicycles and other outside toys inside when they are not being used also reinforces the idea that things need to be put away. Putting outside toys away reduces the chance that they will be stolen by a passing opportunistic thief.

You can teach most young children how to lock doors including deadlocks at a young age. Stress the importance go closing all doors and windows when they are home alone, or when leaving the house. Creating habits and little sayings every time you leave the house can reinforce these ideas. A simple saying could be “Doors locked? Windows Locked? Alarm On? Ok, let's go!” This also helps create good habits for when they are older and unsupervised.

Other things you can teach your children can include:

• Don’t answer the door or phone without an adult present.
• Be careful around wet surfaces. Slip hazards around bathrooms, pools etc
• Practice the quickest path out of the house if there is an emergency.
• Show them how to use the phone in emergencies. Stick phone numbers on the phone including yours, your husbands, the police and a trusty nearby friend or neighbour.
• Show them how to use the alarm. Create a passcode that the children can remember.

Everything is a learning experience. Children respond well to repetition, reinforcement, and observation. They are always watching and will mimic your actions. Make sure you lock every door and window on a regular basis. Take the time and effort to continue to teach and reinforce good safety and security habits.

Safety And Security Measures As They Get Older

With the rise of the internet and social media, older adolescents and “tweens” are very socially active online. You should continue to reinforce the basics of safety and security previously mentioned, however, they will need to know how to be safe at home and online.

As they get older, instruct them about safety and security of interacting online. Make sure they understand why they should not give out personal information on social media and other sites. If you and the family are going on holidays, make sure that you and the children do not share this information online as would-be thieves could use this to break in when you are away. Children should also refrain from letting people know if they are home alone. Children's willingness to share information without understanding the full implications could lead to home burglaries and other problematic circumstances that you will want to avoid.

If the are old enough, teach them the basics of dealing with emergencies around the home. Examples of this could include how to use a fire extinguisher and how to douse a grease fire correctly. Teach them how to turn off the water mains and power to a house so they know what to do if the need arises. If you haven't already, you can teach them how to arm and disarm your security alarm.

Get a Home Security System

If you don’t have one, get one as soon as possible. Home security systems are an excellent deterrent for criminals who are trying to break into your home. This can be critical if there are times when your children are unsupervised at home.

Get an alarm that is not only effective at keeping criminals out but is simple enough for children to use. If you do plan to purchase an alarm system, hire a certified and fully trained locksmith to do it properly. Once installed, teach your kids how it works and how to use it.

Get Your Home Assessed By An Expert

Depending on what state you are in, your local police department may offer a home security check service. Call your local police or a locksmith and ask them to come out to your home.

Police and locksmiths are up to date with local patterns in break-and-enter crime. Locksmiths are also familiar with a large range of products and techniques specific to family safety and security. They will be able to offer you professional and tailored advice to securing your home and family against intruders.

About The Author

Nathan Hughes is a founder of Locksmiths In Sydney.

Nathan remembers the day when his house was robbed. The most horrible thing was the knowledge and feeling that his personal space had been violated. Just the thought of those strangers rifling through the things in his home was nauseating.

And now his job is to help people secure their home and business so they don’t have to go through the same scary circumstances.

When he is not letting you back into your house at 4 am in the morning, he is dressed up as Iron Man running around at home with his family.