Sending your teens out to hang out with their friends in the evening gives you an uneasy feeling in your stomach. You realise that the streets aren’t as safe as they used to be when you were growing up. The levels of knife crime are at an all-time high with over 40,000 offences being recorded in England and Wales in the year ending March 2018. It’s no wonder parents are worrying for their child’s safety out on the streets right now. There are many preventative steps you can take to ensure your teen feels safe and secure no matter where they are. Here are some useful pieces of advice that might help you to trust their judgments and make them feel savvier on the streets.
Steering Clear of Trouble
Firstly, you might want to use online resources to identify crime hotspots near you. Get your teen involved so they can see where to steer clear of when they go out with their friends. The more information they have on areas with a high crime rate the more street smart they will be. Similarly, have a chat with them about the warning signs that people display when they are under the influence of alcohol. Being aggressive after a drink is extremely common amongst youngsters, so give them the confidence to recognise these signs and stay away from them.
Prepared and Protected
Obviously, you want your kids to make smart choices and avoid situations where they might be in danger. However, this isn’t always possible, especially when you look into unprovoked attacks. Perhaps your area has worryingly high rates of knife crime and you feel uneasy even when your child leaves for school in the morning. You want to inform your children about the best ways to avoid injury from street violence, so here are a few ways you can take caution. Firstly, you could send them to martial arts classes, so that they can learn how to defend themselves in a controlled environment. Whether it’s getting out of a strangle hold or protecting the head and centre line of the body, there are many useful skills they can learn in an extracurricular activity such as jiu jitsu or karate. If your anxiety levels are at an all-time high, you could also consider protective clothing for your teen. Products such as cut resistant gloves, Kevlar jackets and other Kevlar clothing might just help you to feel more at ease when your teen is out and about. Of course, this is a last resort; preventing and staying away from knife crime altogether would be the ideal scenario, so make sure you think carefully before providing your child with protective clothing.
No matter how intelligent your teen may be, it’s always worth running them through these ideas so they are aware of how to keep themselves safe on the streets. Take all of the preventative measures you can to keep them out of trouble and only resort to methods of protection as a last resort. Your teens deserve to go out and feel safe wherever they go, so trust them to make good choices and only step in with other methods when you have run out of options.
