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Mid-July. . .I think we have officially hit the halfway point of summer. I can’t believe stores already have school supplies stocked for the upcoming school year. Still, I don’t know if I am sad that the summer will be over in 6 weeks or if I’m secretly happy for school to start up and to finally get my house back in order. Shh! Don’t tell my kids I said that! In all seriousness, however, I love having my kids home during the summer. We get lazy days and the house feels genuinely lived in. Toys are scattered on the floor, twenty pairs of flip flops barricade the front door, and bikes are left parked halfway on the grass and in the driveway. Being a stay-at-home mom, one might assume that because I’m with the kids all the time that safety is kind of already implied. I should be within arm’s reach, right? I should be within earshot, right? WRONG!
I don’t know about other parents but I have to admit that I tend to get a little nonchalant of doing household safety checks during the summer time. It’s not that I don’t put safety first but it’s because I fall victim to that summer vibe of “no worries, we’ll just roll with it” (imagine me saying this with my best valley girl accent). On the contrary, safety should be my number one priority regardless of the time of the year, perhaps even more so during the summer because of the high foot traffic coming in and out of the house several times of the day. In fact, we have a wide age range of kids on are street starting from toddlers all the way up to middle school. At any given time during the day I could have preschoolers over for movies and popcorn and then an hour later a stampede of school aged kids ransacking drawers looking for water balloons or nerf gun bullets. Although everyday is unpredictable, I can always do my best to plan for safety at home.
There are many wonderful household safety checklists available online (see below). Some actually bring safety concerns to light that I never thought of before. For example, putting a piece of tape on the back of remote controls to keep prying fingers from accessing batteries. Or, it’s better to provide toy boxes that don’t have lids to avoid smashed fingers or having small children fall in. Another important safety tip is making it everyday practice to always walk behind the car before backing out and/or going in reverse. Do not rely on reverse car cameras. All it takes is a few extra seconds to walk around the car to make sure there are no small children or toys that could accidentally get run over.
Safe Kids Worldwide is an amazing resource for comprehensive tips on how to keep your child safe. I strongly encourage you to take some time to peruse this resource. You’ll find that you can search for age specific safety tips and their advice spans beyond the household, including car safety, water safety, and even latest consumer recalls. You can also find checklists and FAQ’s to print off and post at home. What I found most helpful is that the website is interactive where you can test your safety knowledge. Knowing that I am doing my part to keep my children safe helps to ensure that everyone will enjoy the rest of their summer.
