Gift Giver and Helpless

Parents, caretakers, and teachers alike desire for their children and students to be safe from injury and getting hurt in anyway. No one wants to see their child hurt in any way or put in the path of danger. It is sad to think that our children may get injured physically or emotionally, so we try to protect them as much as we can. One thing that we need to educate our children about is strangers; it is scary to think about but strangers are real. Many, many children are abducted each day by strangers. This blog will serve to provide information to anyone who works with children so they can educate their children on the different kinds of strangers and the various tricks they use to prey on children. I will discuss information on eight different types of strangers in these next five blogs as well as some basic self defense and preventive strategies to protect the child if a stranger ever attempts to prey on them.
The first stranger I will discuss is called the Gift Giver. Remember, that a stranger can be a male or female, adult or youth. The Gift Giver uses a gift to persuade and lure the child in. This kind of stranger may use something that is of interest to the child like candy, a toy, or a video game to attract the child. Another thing to remember: child abductors always look like someone you'd never expect to be a bad stranger. They are often friendly and caring and appear to be harmless and innocent. When the Gift Giver finds the child alone in a grocery store, for example, they may say, "Hi there. Do you like video games? I have a lot of videos games that I will give you as a present. What kind of games do you like? Oh really! I have games just like that. Come over here with me and I can give you them." Then the child will go out to the stranger's car expecting to get the games, and that's when the stranger grabs the child, throws them in their car, and drives off. It can happen that easily and that quickly. Our children need to be aware and so do the caretakers, parents, and teachers.
The second stranger is called Helpless. This stranger will act like they need help with something and will ask the child to help them. Naturally, children want to help, however, our children should know that adults should never be asking children for help unless their parent is around. For example, this stranger may say they have lost their cat and want help looking for it, or will say they need help carrying groceries to their car. The child will then help this stranger, and that is the stranger's opportunity to lead the child into a place where there isn't anyone around or to their car, and then abduct them.
Strangers and child abductors are serious and they are real. Let's educate our children so they can be safer and more aware of these scary people.

You can check out this site for more information on how to teach children about stranger danger: http://www.moneyinstructor.com/doc/strangerdanger.asp