Leaving the child alone at home: safety rules

2024 Author: James Gerald | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 14:00

Sooner or later, parents ask themselves the question: when can you leave your child alone at home? And how to decide on this? After all, not all mothers and fathers have the opportunity to stay at home with their baby - you need to go to work, study, solve their "adult" questions

In fact, already from school age, you can leave children alone - you just need to follow the safety rules

Already from school age, you can leave children alone - you just need to follow the safety rules!

When I was little, my parents came home at 8 pm. And starting from the first grade they hung a ribbon around my neck with the key to the front door, my mother showed me what to warm up for lunch after school, and I went to class.

The school was far away - two blocks to walk, two roads to cross independently. The first two weeks my parents took me away, and then only a third-grader neighbor looked after me. They trusted me, and at the age of 6 I was a completely independent person!

And here I am myself - the mother of a preschooler, and I am also very worried about the issue of his independence … Let's figure it out together!

How to learn to trust your child?

First of all, you need to learn to trust your child. Anxiety, nervousness and distrust can easily be transmitted to the baby. Therefore, your calls every 5 minutes, widespread control and panic in your voice can only aggravate the situation! The child will feel that he is not trusted, that at any moment something "terrible" can happen, and may lose faith in his abilities.

That's why with peace is first of all!

Pull yourself together and tell your child calmly and confidently: “You are already an adult, and while your parents are at work, you will be the main one in the house. We trust you! Such words raise a sense of their own worth in children, and they strive to justify the trust of adults, become more serious and independent.

Home Alone: Safety Rules

But before the baby is left at home alone, you need to prepare him for this. Here safety regulationswhich you need to take care of:

1. Front door lock must be serviceable, not slammed, opened and closed with a key.

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2. It is desirable that the child should not be able to open the windows by himself. This is the case if your apartment is on a high floor. Explain why you cannot go to the balcony, climb on the windowsills, etc.

3. Strictly tell your kid not to open doors to strangers! Better not to come to the door at all if someone rang or knocked.

4. Hide all dangerous things away. - matches, lighters, stabbing and cutting objects, household chemicals and medicines. Who knows what a little fidget can think of during your absence …

5. Teach your child to use the necessary household appliances. For example, he must be able to reheat food on his own. The best option is a microwave oven or electric kettle. If you have to use a gas stove, then the child should know the whole process of heating food.

Let him repeat the following several times in front of you: put the pan on the stove, light it, then after a couple of minutes turn it off and remove the pan from the stove using oven mitts. You can hang tips in the kitchen for the first time!

6. Warn the neighbors that your baby is alone at home. You can leave a spare set of keys with them if you trust them.

7. Teach your child to communicate correctly on the phone. When talking with a stranger, he should not give his name and address, and even more so - say that mom and dad are not at home.

Important! In a prominent place, post the phone numbers of emergency services, as well as those of your closest relatives.

Commentary by Pavel Ivanenko, Head of Window Technologies and Translucent Structures, REHAU, Eurasia Region

Caring for children and protecting them from various dangers is one of the main tasks of parents. That is why, when a child appears in an apartment, they should pay special attention to the home environment: the installation and location of certain interior elements. One of them is windows. All parents know that the curiosity of young children has no limits. Looking out the window, many of them wish to reach out towards a large and unknown world. And here it is very important to pay attention to the protective elements that will not allow the child to open the window on their own. So, even 20 years ago, window grilles, which were installed by city dwellers, were popular. This solution helped to keep the children safe if they were left alone at home. However, the aesthetic component of the grilles left much to be desired. Fortunately, technological progress does not stand still, and in addition to grills, other, more attractive, means for protecting a child are available. Such innovations, for example, include plastic windows with a lock with a handle. Their secret is in the built-in locking mechanism, which prevents children from opening the windows on their own. This can be done only by using a special key, which is conveniently stored in a place inaccessible to the child.

Also, many families will appreciate another development aimed at protecting all family members, and not only the smallest ones, namely, a burglar-proof window system. A special mechanism is designed in such a way that it allows you to freely turn the handle from the inside, but reliably locks it in case of impact on the hardware from the outside. As a result, the house is reliably protected from attempts to enter through the window, which means that both parents and children can sleep peacefully.

Self-guided walks

Of course, children cannot stay at home all day - they need to go to school, attend different circles, walk with friends on the street. Of course, some schools have after-school groups. But sooner or later the moment will come when your little one will go out on their own!

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The child must have mobile phone, where the phone numbers of relatives will be recorded, as well as a note with the phones of the parents. So your little student will be able to call you, and you can contact him at any time.

You should make sure that the child knows the way for sure to school or additional circles, and only after that - let him go alone. In addition, he must clearly know road safety rules!

And if your child already goes to classes on his own, then do not forget to leave him money for travel.

It may be so that the kid got confused and forgot the way, and the phone was discharged. In this case, he should know who can i contact for help … These can be shop sellers, minibus drivers, police or subway officers. Have the child ask them for a phone number to call you and tell you about what happened.

It happens that troubles and accidents happen to children even under the close supervision of adults, no one is immune from this. But the sooner your child becomes independent, the sooner he realizes how important it is to take care of his safety!