Playing outside will always carry a certain level of risk, but letting your children play outside is essential to their health and development, especially when interacting with other neighborhood kids.
Nevertheless, safety should always be a top concern for parents and guardians—even in relatively safe neighborhoods. That said, here are some of the best ways you can keep your children safe while allowing them to play outside—be it in the yard or the street.
1. Invest in quality fencing
Great quality fencing and material like Trex posts and sleeves are essential for every home, especially those with kids. If you’re going to let your children play in the yard, you have to ensure that they cannot go out of the property without permission, and strangers won’t be able to come inside.
If you don’t already have one, it is highly advisable that you put up a durable fence along the perimeter of your property. At the same time, ensure that the gates are well-secured and cannot be opened easily by little hands. Not only can a fence increase the safety of your children, but it can also improve the privacy of your home as well.
2. Take turns supervising
Children shouldn’t go outside without parental supervision until a certain age. However, it may often be difficult to keep an eye on your kids at all times while they are playing outside unless you have nothing else to do. And sometimes, it can only take a few seconds for your child to fall into harm without you looking.
A good way around this is to take turns supervising, be it with your spouse, friend, or neighbor. Neighbors often take turns watching each other’s children when they are playing outside together on the street or in someone’s yard. If the next doors have children, speak with them about taking turns supervising while allowing the kids to play.
3. Consider tracking devices
Tracking devices may be inappropriate at a certain age, but for young children, they make for a great precaution against kidnapping and wandering too far from the house. Look for a mini GPS tracker that you can attach to your child’s clothes or have them wear around their wrist. If they ever disappear from your sight, you can quickly track them on your phone and alert the authorities immediately, if necessary.
4. Let the dog accompany them
Strangers and potential kidnappers are more reluctant to approach children that have dogs alongside them. Even the friendliest breeds can spark into action when they feel that someone will harm their family, especially someone they don’t recognize. And even if your dog is very friendly towards strangers, it can still be a great deterrent against those who mean harm to your child.
It is also important that you teach your child how to handle the dog. If they are old enough to hold a leash, allow them to take walks by themselves. Not only does this teach responsibility, but it also helps them become more familiar with going outside with a pet.
5. Set up outdoor security cameras
If you don’t already have security cameras around your property, you should install them now, especially if you have children old enough to play outside. Aside from helping you recognize danger from far away, security cameras can also provide solid evidence in case someone or something threatens the safety of your child while they are playing outside.
6. Teach stranger danger
Cuts, scrapes, and bruises are normal parts of the play, and there is no real way to prevent them entirely. However, stranger danger is another story. Your child needs to recognize a threat no matter how young they may be, which is why you need to teach them about stranger danger as early as possible.
Here are several tips for doing that:
- Define a stranger. Teach your children that a stranger is anybody unfamiliar to them. Do not force them to interact with family members or friends if they don’t want to. It is their natural defense mechanism, and it will help keep them safe.
- Use several methods. There are many ways you can teach your child about stranger danger. You could try role-playing, identifying safe adults (police officers, firefighters, etc.) that they can approach for help, and explaining what to do if they get lost.
- Be honest. Kids are a lot stronger than you think, and you don’t need to worry about scaring them by being honest about what can happen with strangers. Just make sure that the language you use is age-appropriate.
Every parent’s role is to keep their child safe, but preventing them from playing outside can hurt their health and development. So, if they are finally old enough to play outdoors, use these strategies to increase their safety even when you’re not hovering over them.
