Toddler (12-14 mths)

Child Safety
By Dr. Sally Goldberg

You are your child’s first and most important teacher. You, your family and your friends form for your child his or her first and most important social group. Your parent-child relationship is the main model; and you, your relatives and your friends make up your child’s training ground for all future relationships.

You work around the clock to nurture, love, guide, support, teach and protect your child, but all the while, safety looms high in your mind. It underlies all other interactions. As a matter of fact, you, your family and your friends provide a safety net for your child. It’s these relationships that you all build over time that protects him or her. From you, and all of these people who are nearest and dearest to you, your child learns with whom to associate, what to accept from others, what to say, what not to say and who is okay to get to know. In addition, you reinforce the concepts of basic safety precautions through books you read to your children.

While you might think you need a specific formula or some kind of child protection procedure list to follow, it turns out that a major part of the child protective process comes directly from your strong family and extended family bonds. You will find that you, your relatives and your friends tend to do naturally all they can to teach your child to stay close by in busy and crowded places, caution him or her not to run in the street, show him or her how to hold on tight when in a parking lot and much more. You all cultivate this protective relationship over time, and love is the secret ingredient that makes it all work.

Dr. Sally Goldberg is founder/director of Dr. Sally Parenting. Visit Dr. Sally at drsally@drsallyparenting.com, www.drsallyparenting.com.