The start of the new year and, as seen in Wishes for baby-a Film by fisher-Price, the start of a new life. Remember and honor the past, look to the future, but live in the moment. Begin the new year by practicing the tips below to keep you and your family safe at home, in and around pools and water, while riding bicycles, walking and skating, traveling by car, and even parenting. Pro Consumer Safety wishes you and your family a Happy, Safe and Healthy New Year!
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This wonderful film was produces several years ago, but still captures how important life is and celebrates the many babies born on New Years Day. Happy New Year in 2019!
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Bike, walk & skate safety
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Visiting a home with a pool? Remember most toddlers who have drowned in pools were not expected to have been in the pool area but elsewhere in the home, asleep or playing. Make sure the pool has the following layers of protection to keep your child safe.
If you own a pool-when the pool is not-in-use:
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- Validate your child: When you validate your child, you allow them to express how they feel. Parenting is not about control or power, it is about the parent listening, guiding, allowing the child to learn from within, by allowing and respecting the child's feelings, needs, abilities and experiences. Without it, children are at significant risk of becoming victimized in relationships, becoming codependent, having a loss of desire and understanding of how to satisfy their own needs and spending a lifetime of searching for their own identity in adulthood.
- Allow your child to play: Allow them time on their own and with other children (with supervision of course but not control). Playing and experiencing from games to activities from crafts, drawing, coloring, sports, etc. helps make new brain connections that are shown to help improve learning ability throughout childhood and even reduce risk taking behavior during adolescence. The activity of "play" begins with toddler ages in preschool, kindergarten and elementary school. However as the child grows, in middle and high school the term "play", while similar, is term is identified through specific activities such as sports, music, girl scouts, boy scouts, dance, sleep-overs/slumber parties, skiing, ice skating, etc. Not any different from in adulthood. These all help improve learning, from emotional, intellectual to social.
- Respect your child: Talk with them, not to them. Ask them do not tell them. When you ask them to do something say "please". You will be surprised how fast they catch on. How you behave to them is how they will behave in their relationships at school and to you as a caregiver.
- Let your child define them self: Never define your child. If there is one thing you never want to do is define them. Remember they will be the one going to a job or career every day. You want them to be happy and successful. When children are defined, they are at greater risk of codependency and learning to please others while not knowing how to please them self. As a result many adults go through life in unwanted jobs and careers they do not enjoy and trying to figure out how to get happiness in their life. Allow your child to say "I want to be....." then validate them. Make sure it is their choice, not yours. As they feel choices they will explore new ventures and learn new activities. Remember let them "define", choose, explore, then you validate by saying supportive things to them.
- Relationships: Keep relationships that you would like your child to be in. What you expose them to is what is being modeled by example to them, if what they will seek. If you do not feel comfortable in expressing your feelings, you are not getting your needs met in your relationship, or the relationship is only one-way, this is damaging for the child. For those dating a single parent, once you have been in the child's life and bonded overtime (especially 5-10 years or more), take the responsibility of being there for the child, since you have become part of their life (see "I Broke Up With My Boyfriend, Not His Kids"). Remember when all adults in a child's life put the child first and models healthy behaviors, that child will succeed in many ways.
- Model the behavior you would like in your child: If you desire your child to have interests, improve brain development to do better in school and go to college to have a career, in addition to validating and allowing the child to play and experience, do activities with the child, show them how to experience and enjoy life. Limit screen (TV) time, drinking, smoking, addictive behaviors and get involved in activities with them. See The Parent's Pyramid.