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Whether you’re moving into a new home, starting your own business, or want to know how to ensure your children are safe at school, the right safety information is important. There are several things you can do to ensure that your home, business, and family are taken care of, and many of these habits are pretty cost effective as well.

Electronic and internet security is an important part of the safety information that you’ll want to learn more about. You need to make sure that your online information is safe, so getting antivirus protection and password protection is definitely necessary, especially as your business grows. Companies like Norton and even Microsoft will supply you with the software and CD-ROM programs that you need to download onto your new PC for protection, so that you can avoid Trojan horses and nasty viruses that can destroy important files.

If you’re looking for ways to keep your new home or business location safe, you should definitely consider an alarm system. There are several companies that will offer installation for less than $100, and many of the systems that you select will automatically call the nearest police department for you if your home is broken into. The safety information that you will need to work these devices is becoming easier to understand, which means that you can choose your alarm code and turn the unit on and off with ease. Electric fences for your home or business should also be considered, but you should definitely call a professional to survey your property before installation.

Even after you have the alarm system that you want for your home, you’ll still need to make sure that your family is protected from fire damage. Your children may be getting safety tips at school when it comes to fire protection, but it’s important to go over this information as a family, too. For instance, make sure that your smoke alarms are checked and cleaned every few months so that they will successfully alert you each time there is an excessive amount of smoke in the house. Ensuring that you have practiced an evacuation plan with your family will also help when it comes to fire safety.

Safety information is also important when it comes to your children’s social interactions. No matter your child’s age, you should make sure that he or she knows how to get in touch with you, either by calling the home phone or reaching you by cell phone. Your children should also know their address, so that if they are lost they will be able to tell a trusted adult how to get them back to safety. Making sure that your family is secure is of the utmost importance, and even if your children know how to work electronic safety devices, basic home phone and address information could still help to save your family member’s life.

If the baby monitor you already have doesn’t seem to be enough to meet your needs and you want to watch your child more closely,  a baby monitor wireless camera. Actually if you want, you can re-purpose a regular home security camera to use as a baby monitor.

Your first decision is to determine which type of monitor will best suit your needs.  Take for example a dome security camera. It fixes into the ceiling and will allow you to see a full 360 degrees.  A night vision baby monitor wireless camera is another option that will allow you to watch your little one at any time of the day or night. A camera that you can power with batteries is also a great innovation because in a power failure when there is so much else to occupy your mind, at least you’ll know your little one is OK.

There is also the question of how many monitors you’ll want and where to put them.  Probably you’ll have one in your bedroom, another in the kitchen and maybe one in the living room or your office too.

Like the regular home security camera, you can re purpose existing monitors to be part of your child safety system.  Position the camera in your baby’s room carefully, so you can see as much as possible, but make sure it’s well out of reach.

You’ll also want to be certain that not only have you positioned your equipment to be able to see, but you’ll want to hear as well.

Yesterday, in Mount Forest, Ontario, the Ontario Provincial Police discovered the remains of an eight year old girl who has been missing since April of this year.  Since two people have already been charged with her murder, discovering the body and reuniting this irrevocably damaged family is the best that the investigators hope to do.  As a mother, I’m torn by the thought of only finding some closure by having the body of my missing child returned for burial.

All over the world this same  scene is being played out because as inexplicable as it may seem, there are people out there who will readily murder children and there is nothing that we can really do about it.

I read an article recently about the benefits of making it mandatory to implant tracking chips under the skin of children and while – when one looks at a case like this one- there are obvious merits to the idea, there are some serious drawbacks as well…you know – like that big brother thing?

Why does the word “mandatory” need to creep into these ideas?  Maybe it is a good idea to have the option to implant a chip – as long as  your child – will later in life (and not too late) have the option to remove it.  I suppose when people think of it as optional then there will be a cost attached, which will naturally make it unlikely that all families who desire this option, will have access to it.  Still, in spite of sad days like this, I cannot support mandatory chip implants.

Should children really be forced to wear bicycle helmets?

Ignore for just a minute that this isn’t a politically correct question and ask yourself if helmets are really necessary on kids or if – as yuppie parents- we have successfully leapt over the ledge of sensibility yet again.

I understand that there is always that heart wrenching chance that a child will hit their heads and be seriously injured or killed, but the odds are pretty slight.  But looking all around me a tthe places where you don’t even need a helmet to ride a motorcycle- there needs to be some sense of balance.

Personally Im in favour of it although I do think that it’s not entirely necessary- well- except for MY KID.  And I’ll bet you that’s how a lot of people look at it.  Do what you want with your child, but if its up to me to protect the safety and well being of the life entrusted to my cre- you’re darned right he’ll have a hemet strapped to his head.  I have  a problem with the legistation in Ontario that makes it illegal for a kid to be on a bike without one. What about skateboards?  ARe they next ?  Yup -

It’s important to care for our children and to raise them with some awareness of safety, but we don’t need to scare the life out of them do we?  can’t they get just a little freedom?

……but on the plus side of politically correct – my son will probably never smoke. that can only be good.

All of the kids will be getting out of school soon and while it will certainly make for a slightly quieter rush hour, it also means that as drivers we’ll need to be more vigilant when we’re out on the road during the day.  In spite of the great emphasis that’s placed on keeping our children safe, the bottom line is that kids are just kids and they forget sometimes to do all the right things.  As drivers it’s our responsibility to make sure that a little forgetfulness from a four year old doesn’t cost them everything.

And roads are not the only things.  If you don’t have a truly kick-butt safety fence and alarm system for your swimming pool, you have to do something about that.  Swimming pool safety is another place where a little mistake can have simply brutal consequences and again – it falls to us to make our children safe….and our friends kids and neighbors kids too.

Finally, just another note on summer safety for kids. While the consequences – on the surface – are not as dire as a traffic accident or drowning, it’s important to make sure that your kids are wearing lots of sunscreen.  Yes – I too went through my childhood without sunscreen and only rarely suffered very, very slight burns, but now I can burn badly – so something has changed.

If you’ve ever lost your child in the grocery store or the mall, you’ve experienced a parent’s worst nightmare. However, there are a number of child safety products on the market to help prevent this problem. One of them is the Giggle Bug. The Giggle Bug is a small device that you attach to the child’s clothing. If he or she wanders off, you simply press the button on the Giggle Bug transmitter and the device on your kid’s clothing starts beeping, letting you know where he or she is. Unlike some similar devices, the Giggle Bug also beeps if your child (or someone else) removes the device without deactivating the transmitter first. This will alert you if your kid decides he or she doesn’t want to be monitored or if a kidnapper tries to remove it. The Giggle Bug works up to around 100 feet indoors and up to 150 feet outside. If you have a child who doesn’t stick near you, the Giggle Bug is the perfect solution.

This past weekend I decided to give my sister a day of rest and relaxation by taking my 5 year old niece for the day. Not having a lot of activities to do with a child at home, we decided that I would take her to the shopping mall. The day was going well, we got icecream, picked out a new outfit for her and browsed the stuffed animal store. Trying to appease her insatiable appetite for dolls, we hit the big box store to check out the toy department. While she was getting her fix, I bumped into my co-worker Bonnie. We chatted not two minutes before I turned around and my niece was gone! After searching high and low in toys, the panic set in. I rushed to the customer service desk and got them to issue a missing child alert. Thankfully after a few minutes, which seemed like hours, a store employee walked up hand in hand with my niece. As it turns out she caught a glimpse of the pet department and “wanted to see the fishies”. Embarrassed, but very thankful, I decided to take her home. I realize things could have turned out a lot worse and I definitely learned an important child safety rule - never turn your back on a child in your care. maybe before our next trip I’ll get my sister to invest in one of those child tracking systems. But first I need my own day of rest and relaxation!

Aside from the very simple fact that it’s a moral responsibility that is on the shoulders of EVERYONE to report/stop child abuse or neglect, for those who have ever wondered who has a legal mandate here’s a list:

• A doctor, nurse, dentist or any other physical or mental health care professional
• A hospital administrator
• A school principal, teacher or any other teaching professional
• Any owner, operator or employee in a daycare center.
• A guidance counselor
• Anyone whose employment requires or includes the care of a child or children or in whose custody a child is placed – camp counselors, nanny.

How far does the legal obligation stretch? Well, without burdening you with a tangle of almost indecipherable legalese the obligation extends to knowing or suspecting that a child has or will be abused, abandoned or neglected in any way.  The legal obligation super cedes well known precedents like client attorney privilege and doctor patient confidentiality.

So considering how sweeping these obligations are, it should be surprising how often child abuse goes unreported.  And the worst of it is that you just know that there are people who are close to that child – a parent, neighbor, close family member or friend who know what’s happening.

Strange isn’t it, that a legal obligation can sit on an essential stranger but not on a close friend.

Can someone please explain to me, how it can be that after all these years, state and local police can still do safety inspections of child safety car seats and keep finding that they haven’t been installed properly?  Come on people. What are you thinking?  I admit that some of the safety products seem to be going a little over the deep edge, but child car seats are not one of them.

Booster seats are the same.  Did you know that children in booster seats are 59% less likely to be injured in the event of a car crash than children who are not wearing them? Its simply because cars and seat belts are not designed for children. They are designed for adults and without booster seat its difficult for a child to get a fit that will protect them. But not all seats fit the same and we keep buying them they’re  a one size fits all concept.  Again we need to use child safety products properly of they won’t help.  But then, sometimes I still hear about children who are not even wearing seat belts in the first place.  My son was always a big kid and by the time he was 7 it was a constant battle to keep him in the back seat, because apparently, with the advent of air bags the front seat isn’t safe for kids.  But let me tell you something I discovered while digging through the statistics.  Of all the children who were reportedly harmed by air bags in the front seat (it was about 22 of them at the time, all but one were not wearing a seat belt.  That means that when the airbags went off, their heads were already in contact with the dashboard.

When will we ever learn?

Did you know that every 40 seconds, somewhere in the United States, a child goes missing? It’s every parent’s worst nightmare and it’s happening with terrible frequency.  Child safety is everyone’s concern.

At an event happening in Plano Texas, called the Life Print Child Safety Event, parents had the opportunity to obtain Biometric Fingerprinting and a DNA Identification Kit for their children. If you’ve never heard of it, Biometric Fingerprinting is the most recent technology innovation for fingerprinting and it’s used by the law enforcement community, federal agencies and the Military.

The advantage offered by biometric finger printing for children is that their prints are entered into the FBI database as soon as the child is reported missing and they’re immediately available to every law enforcement agency in the country.

I’m a mother. I can’t imagine anything more horrible than having my baby go missing – and my baby right now is a 200 lb 18 year old who towers over me – but I know the gut wrenching feelings and the terror this subject raises. But still I have a question about this.

Once my child is found will his fingerprints be removed from the database? Still, all this is after the fact. Its even more important that parents maintain vigilance over their young children- especially when they’re out in public situations where they can easily become distracted