What are your views on teaching your children stranger danger?

[scrooged]

I took ds to the park, in the loo I overheard a mother tell her children (about 5+6) that they must stay with her at all times or someone will take them away. I thought this must be scary for a child and would it make them paraniod for their safety in the future. I know that it's possible that this might happen but the chances are tiny so is it wrong to teach your child that everyone is a bad person that wants to take them away or is it wrong to teach your child that there are a couple of people who are not nice and to know to run if someone offers them a lift/sweets/to see their pet? Where's the middle point?

What do you think?

I teach ds to run if someone offers him a lift/offers sweets etc. Am I wrong in teaching him that alot of people in the world are nice?

I think it depends on what experiences that mum's had.

My DD started running off in shops not long after she turned 2 if she had the slightest opportunity. Obviously I tried to make sure she didn't and she never got very far until the following summer.

It was a couple of months before her 3rd birthday and about 6 weeks after Madeleine McCann disappeared. I looked away for a split second in Toys R Us (DH was with us as well) and she was gone. We probably found her in about 40 seconds, but she was 6 aisles away by then and they were the longest 40 seconds of our lives - I was frantic.

And at that point I went down the 'someone nasty might come and take you away and you'll never see Mummy and Daddy again' route. Really dislike myself for doing it, but would dislike myself more if I kept pussyfooting round the issue and she got seriously lost or snatched as a result.

She's 4.5 now and still a cheery, friendly little soul, but she v. rarely runs off anywhere.