+1karder wrote: Kids, just like adults, need to remember that their brains and judgment are the only tools they have to protect themselves. Unlike adults, kids don't have size and weight to their benefit or the ability to arm themselves. Teenagers need to be 100% truthful about their whereabouts and who they are spending time with, and follow curfews like their lives depend on it, because it may. That is really tough for parents to teach, and there away too many kids who suffer greatly because they did not listen to their parents "stupid rules".
SA, SA, SA! Mine were taught from toddling to keep there eyes up and looking around.
From age two they could tell you mom and dad's names, home address and telephone numbers, dial 9-1-1 and we drilled them on finding their location for 9-1-1.
We did outdoor chores when they played outside, went with them when they went over to friends' houses and came and got them when they left.
The weren't out of our sights, and didn't want to be (though the 17 yo scared us a couple of times as a baby and ended up on a leash) until teenagers. The seventeen year old faithfully calls us when she arrives where she is, informs of detours and arrival/departures from those locations and when she leaves for home. They never stayed with anyone that we weren't intimate with their parents. If it was a lock-in at church, one of us chaperoned. The seventeen year old is training to carry in the car and both are very responsible about keeping us informed.
We have drilled them in squirming (breaking away) and evading, but we stress SA. There is no way that they can feasibly defeat a large male attacker. Both know how to shoot and know where the guns are.
Finally, we pray...a lot!