What does it mean to keep your family safe? When you consider all the dangers that lie in wait for your kids, it will make you crazy. At some point, you have to come to the realization that there is no way you can keep them completely safe. That knowledge leaves you feeling helpless and afraid. At any time, regardless of your best efforts, your kids could end up missing, or badly injured, or worse. Just as you are getting the cold shakes over the thought, one of those kids tells you they want to try out for the football team. You are going to need the extra strength headache medicine for this one.
Don’t despair. This is how every parent feels sooner or later. You are not completely helpless and the safety of your family is not completely hopeless. No one piece of advice will get the job done because a lot of it depends on how large your family is, the amount of disposable income you have, and how old your children are. Safety measures for your toddler are different for safety measures for your teen. Here are a few of the little things that will help for most situations:
Reliable Transportation
If you don’t feel comfortable having your kids take the school bus or carpool with people you don’t know or walk or ride a bike to school, you are going to need reliable transportation. If it is important that you are the one driving them from place to place at a certain time in your life, then every little thing about your vehicle contributes to the safety of your children.
That includes proper registration. If you are asking, what is vehicle registration and how it differs from a title, you are not alone. A title is a one-time document showing that you are the legal owner of the vehicle. Registration is all about paying state taxes associated with owning the vehicle. It has to be renewed every year. When you go through a license check, the officer asks for license and registration. Failure to produce your registration can lead to expensive fines and might also cost you your driver’s license, at least until the matter is settled.
Losing that license means losing the safety measure of having reliable transportation for your kids. The same is true for routine maintenance, and having the best tires and breaks. You also don’t want your kid in the car when the police officer pulls you over and writes you a ticket for an expired registration.
A Safe Neighborhood
Sometimes, there is not a lot you can do to make your neighborhood a safe place for kids after the fact. That is why it is so important that you consider these tips for finding a safe neighborhood for your kids to grow up in before you make a downpayment on a 30 year mortgage. One of the first things you should look for in a nice neighborhood is the presence of well-kept sidewalks. If you don’t want your kids walking or riding in the streets, they have to have safe walkways. Also look for night time lighting. Drive through in the dark to see if the neighborhood is well lit. It is often the little things that make a huge difference when it comes to safety.
Location Tech
Apple wants you to know that their new AirTag trackers are not ideal for tracking the whereabouts of your kids. Even so, they are very inexpensive and work very well according to reviewers. Some of those same reviewers also suggest that AirTag trackers can track people a little too well.
It really doesn’t matter if you use tracker pucks, smartwatches, or smartphones to do the job. There is plenty of technology at every price point that will enable you to know where your kids are at all times. Just one generation ago, parents did not have that ability. A misplaced child was panic-inducing. Now, that panic can be followed up by checking your smartphone and getting the location of your missing child.
There is no such thing as absolute safety. But there are a few things we can do to squeeze as much safety from our circumstances as possible. Keep every aspect of your transportation up to date and reliable. Choose a safe neighborhood that has ample sidewalks and lighting. And make sure your child does not leave the house without some type of tracking tech.
