Occupying the headlines this week has been the abduction & murder of a local 8 year old girl. A Google search on Nurin would result in the background & events of this tragic news, so I won’t go into it at all here. But if you are interested, you can check out the family’s blog on the whole incident- from their point of view.
Frankly, I don’t know if the world is becoming more “evil”, or if it is just a case of increased awareness & increased reports / information flow. I can still recall I was “allowed” to visit the local deli or sundry shops on my own (under similar alleged circumstances with the above abduction), go for a bicycle ride around the neighbourhood without the “fear” of anything happening to me (except traffic-related incidents).
Catching up with some fellow parent-friends, we were discussing how we could prevent such mishaps from happening to our own kids.
He shared that he has already coached his 4 year old girl on a few preventative measures:
What else would you teach a toddler to become street-smart?
2 responses so far ↓
1 toddlerdaddy // Sep 25, 2007 at 6:16 AM
Gotta say this type of report sends chills down my spine in a way it never used too before I had kids of my own.
It just seems it is a real problem these days, although my rational mind tells me it is to do with greater reporting / larger populations etc. One of the reasons I moved out of the city was so that my kids could have somewhere to play without everybody around.
As for what to teach them, that is still something that I have to work on, although we are teaching our 2 year old her mums mobile number.
The one thing I am looking forward to is with the increase in cheap mobile phone availability is some of those ones that also track the kids over the network if it all goes horribly wrong.
2 Daddee // Sep 25, 2007 at 8:35 AM
That’s a good idea; it reminds me of the time I was lost on the beach-outing once, when I was (I think) around 5 years old.
I was wandering along the beach obviously looking very lost (not crying, just walking around). A grown-up picked me up & took me to the police. I can’t recall what they asked, but I can still see the visual of them confirming/repeating to me the registration plate of dad’s car, & me nodding. I can remember riding in the back of their Land Rover, & then sitting on the boot of my dad’s car, while keeping watch, waiting for the rightful owner (ie, dad) to claim me.
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