Protect Your Children

What could be more important than the safety of our children?  To protect your child, think of the outside world as a jungle and your child as prey.  The predator will be looking for the young and unattended!  Here are some basic life-saving tips for us as parents to be more aware of:

1. Make sure your child knows their phone number and are able to write it.

2. Never leave your child in a car alone.  Would you leave $5,000 in a bag on your seat while you run into a store to get something?  How much is your child worth?  Priceless? Exactly!

3. If your child is left at home they should never open the door or be allowed to do it even when you are home.  They will do what they are used to.  This also applies to the phone.  A predator can find out who is home and when very easily!

4. Never allow your child to go alone to a public restroom without an adult.  Don't be lazy with your child's safety and innocence!

5. Don't think giving your child a cell phone will protect them.  Cell phones are nothing more than communicators, they are not weapons that will help in abductions or being molested.

6. Is your child eating healthy?  It is your responsibility as a parent to provide proper nutrition for your child.  If I brought you the car of your dreams, wouldn't you put the best gas in it?

7. Take stock of your child.  Are they overweight?  Take this seriously.  Again, it is your obligation as a parent to make sure proper nutrition and exercise are maintained.  This is not a vanity issue, but a health issue.

Here's the tough one... are you, as a parent, the role model that you want your child to become like?  They will do what they see as examples, not what you say!

In the final analysis, it is not what you do for your children, but what you have taught them to do for themselves that will make them safe and successful human beings.

I take my obligation as a parent as as a professional martial arts instructor very seriously... I hope you fell the same way!

~Sensei