Show Notes:
Overblown parental fears regarding stranger danger and abductions adds undo anxiety to children and zaps their confidence.
Past & current generations parental fears
Every generation has offered issues for parents to worry about including: abductions, teen predators, cyberbullying, online predators, Aids, STDs, teen pregnancy, social media, war on drugs, and vaping.
Kids have learned that they need a phone to feel safe and to have constant connection with their parents up to and thru the college years. After 9-11, parents vowed to never let their kids be disconnected from them.
Lessons kids in the past learned from unsupervised time away from parents
Dr. Jordan describes the lessons past generations of kids learned by being out on the streets and in the woods without adult supervision.
Debunking stranger danger: What is the reality?
Far more kids are seriously injured and killed by family members than by strangers.
The majority of missing kids are runaways fleeing from physically or emotionally abusive parents; most of the rest are kids kicked out by parents or abducted by estranged parents.
There are on average around 150-350 kids abducted by a non-family member in the US each year. With about 65 million kids, in the US, that means that .001% of children are abducted
Milk cartons, posters, billboards, TV news 24-7, mass finger printing, school shootings, armed police guards and locked schools and drills; kids are bombarded with messages that today’s world is a scary and dangerous place and kidnappings happen all of the time.
Our perception of danger has increased, not the actual level of risk. Research stats don’t validate that the world is less safe today & that every child is in eminent danger of becoming a victim.
Educating kids about how to take care of themselves
Educating kids: Wee can educate kids without causing them to believe the world is scary and dangerous place. Parents need to be mindful of not projecting their fears onto their children and overloading them.
Do not allow the media and culture to cause you to parent out of fear or live in fear.
Links to articles about educating kids about stranger danger
Links to articles about how to protect kids, prepare kids, and educate kids about taking care of themselves at different ages:
7 ways to prevent abductions: www.investigations.com
Preventing child abduction: division of criminal justice services
Learn more about Dr. Jordan’s personal growth/leadership development weekend retreats and summer camps at, www.campweloki.com