Please come and tell me how you hammer home the road safety awareness messages to your dc...

[notnowbernard]

As dd1 is going to send me to an early grave at this rate

She is a pretty savvy little thing most of the time but the road-sense thing she can't seem to grasp all (or even most) of the time

She ran across a (minor, but still) road without me today because she caught sight of a classmate. I was dealing with a tantrumming dd2 at the time (whole other thread!) I don't know whether she looked or not, but that's not the point... I've told her countless times she can't cross on her own yet - she's only in Reception

I lost it with her a bit (cue major dramatics) and didn't let her have the comic we'd bought on the way home. But I don't really think this is a very effective way of dealing with it... she needs to get the whole road safety thing

Please advise me!

TIA

show her this!

my son did this at nursery, i spent the next two weeks making him cross lots of roads with me

It might not have been the best, but it might have worked my ds was that age when he went out on to the road, I was in shock, and as you say cue major dramatics
Including 'what would I do if you were in heaven, cry, cry, cry'
I felt bad, abit over the top but he never goes near the road now hes 5.5

Thanks

Looking at stuff online is a good idea

Have done the scare-tactic thing too

She gets it at that moment but I need something that's gonna stick

(feel guilty about scare-tactics, too)

there's the hedgehog website too but i don't like the new campaign much (the child on crutches one)

naughty willie the weasel, though i note his mummy didn't look at the accident first!

I spend a lot of time waiting at crossings for the green man while everyone else is crossing without the green man - this gives lots of opportunities to say that they are all naughty etc - you have to do it every single time though without exception - they need to get the idea that they stop at all roads no matter how clear they are or what everyone else is doing.

I also make my ds stop a metre back from the kerb so that he has to think about the road being there before he gets to the kerb - it also scares drivers less if he is waiting for me to catch up back from the road iyswim.

I read somewhere they don't have real awareness until 8.

My 3(5,5 and 4) have been walking a busy road since zero and are good but they have their lapses. It'll be some time before I expect them to be totally trustworthy.

Dtwin 1 is a dilly daydream so I know where you're coming from

I ran out in front of a car when I was about 5. The owner of the car called the police and my mum told me a policeman had been around to my house because of it, which scared me into being a bit more careful. Thinking about it now this was probably a ruse cooked up by crafty mum. Some of her methods were questionable.

In London, there's the Childrens' Traffic Club. There's a website you could look up. They send 6 road safety books with stickers to the kids (one every 2 months) from the age of 3 or 4 and my kids love getting something in the post. It was quite good when you could say 'look this is a zebra crossing like in your book' etc.

Maybe your local council does something similar.

sorry meant Children's

Thanks for your responses