Parents : How often do you tell your kids : don't leave w/strangers ?

[BelleCarolinaPeridot]

Please say everyday 24/7 365 days a year . This came to my mind regarding the missing Alabama teen in Aruba .

[acmavm]

1. CONSTANTLY. I am forever telling my son 'don't talk to strangers,

run from anyone who tries to give you some story about needing help finding his dog or cat, never ever go near a car because someone says that they need help getting in or putting something in it or any excuse that could be a trap to get you close enough to throw into the car.'

And then I make him watch television shows or look at articles about kids who did exactly what I tell him not to do and paid for it with thier lives.

And then I feel angry and resentful at a world who makes me do these things.

[BelleCarolinaPeridot]

2. Good parenting .

I am an adult and my family still worries about me whenever I walk around the neighborhood .

[Lex]

3. And you know what?

There was an episode on Oprah where the parents swore-to-god they had educated their children about NOT going away with strangers. And they were truly convinced their kids would not do it.

And . . . the Oprah show put the kid in a situation where a (pretend) stranger came up and gave the kid some story and the kid went with the stranger willingly. They had a hidden videocamera and the parents were watching it from another place. Almost to a kid, they went with the stranger.

The parents were flabbergasted.

[1monster]

5. The kids go off with the strangers because the stranger asks them for

help. They'll say a child is hurt or that they have lost their puppy and need help finding it, or that they need someone to show them how to get to a place nearby...

The kids are trying to be good citizens. Unfortunately, the monsters that prey on children know that kids almost always will fall for something like that.

[LynzM]

4. Not often enough

I should probably start... she's already 2.5. Wow.

6 degrees of separation... true for me, in this case. Weird. Such a sad thing :(