Tips for Parents
- Have your child fingerprinted and keep the booklet in a safe, accessible place along with updated pictures. Have an accurate physical description including such things as scars, moles and birthmarks. Call CHILD FIND if you need a new booklet.
- Teach your child their telephone number, area code and address.
- Show your child how to dial the operator and 911 and practice what to say.
- Know where your child is at all times.
- Don’t let your child go to a public restroom alone.
- Don’t leave your child alone in a vehicle.
- Don’t put your child’s name, first or last, on hats, caps, jackets, bikes, wagons or anywhere that is visible to strangers. A person who calls your child by name will automatically be thought of as a friend not a stranger.
- Teach your child to avoid strangers. A stranger is someone they do not know very well.
- Don’t leave your child alone in the toy section of a store or mall. Teach them to go to a cashier for help if they do get lost.
- Know your child’s friends. Be involved in your child’s activities.
- Practice walking routes to and from friends’ homes, school etc. with your child and instruct them to use those routes only.
- Make it clear to your child which of their friends homes they may go to, to play or visit and what a BLOCK PARENT home is.
- Listen if your child tells you that he or she does not want to be with someone. Find out WHY. Encourage communication.
- Notice if someone pays undue attention to your child.
- Never belittle any fear or concern your child has: real or imaginary.
- Tell your child that if anything happens, you will look for them no matter how long it takes to find them.
- Have a secret code word with your children that only you and they know.
