Tulsa Area Car Seat Safety Checks in June

I went to a children's health and safety fair last month and checked the installation of my daughter's booster seat. It was installed incorrectly, despite the pictured instructions on the side of the model, which I had followed precisely!

For readers who live in my area, here are car seat safety checks that Safe Kids will be sponsoring in June:

June 4th 2-4pm State Farm Insurance 12222 State Farm Blvd (51st & 129th)

June 9th 10am-noon Owasso Fire Dept. 207 S. Cedar (76th St. N & Cedar)

June 20th 9am-noon Creek Nation Tribal Complex 13000 Loop 56 (Hwy 75 & Loop 56)

June 25th 10am-noon Riverside Chevrolet 707 W 51st (I-44 & Arkansas River)

For more info, call 918-494-SAFE, or visit www.safekidstulsa.com.

Talk To Kids About Internet Safety

You already know to talk to your children about drinking, drugs, smoking, and sex. But have you discussed Internet safety with your kids?

Don't assume that the person your young child or teen is chatting with is safe, just because they found the companion in the Webkinz site or in a Christian chat room. If they don't already know the person, they do not really know who is on the other end of the conversation. And neither do you.

It doesn't take long for youthful prey to inadvertently (or purposely, thinking they are safe) give away their schedule, school, or location.

Here are a few suggestions for helping your kids stay safe online:

Monitor their online activity by looking over their shoulders at the screen. You're not being nosy...you're being a responsible parent.

Check the computer's browsing history (including temporary Internet files and cookies) to see what websites have been visited. If there are no sites in these sections, your children may be hiding their browsing habits.

Use filtering software.

Know the passwords to your kids' social networking profiles.

Talk to your children about identity theft. Explain what it is and how it can happen.

Tell your kids what constitutes "personal information." If your child has already given out her age and hometown, then sends a picture of herself next to the school's mascot, a predator could easily find her school, follow her home, and then know where she lives.

Warn your teen about downloading free software. Downloads that seem harmless could possibly contain malicious code, sexual images, or computer viruses. Some illegal downloads destroy your programs or corrupt certain types of files. Others commandeer the information in your data files for the sole purpose of stealing your identity.

For more quick safety tips and information on software monitoring programs, check out the Digital Doctors website.

Attn: Dads of Great Students

Happy Father's Day! (Read this blog, then get off the computer and call your dad!)

WATCH D.O.G.S. (Dads of Great Students) is the safe-school initiative of the National Center for Fathering, and is also part of the MORE alliance.

The safe-school initiative focuses on prevention of violence in schools by using the positive influence of fathers and father figures.

WATCH D.O.G.S. Director, Eric Snow, helps dedicated men and women increase school safety, and provide positive male role models, for schools across the U.S.

To get involved, visit www.fathers.com.

Child Safety Videos Available on MonkeySee.com

In February 2008, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) and how-to website MonkeySee.com added a series of online child safety videos to their catalog.

The professionally produced videos contain tips every parent should know on topics ranging from Internet and school safety to child identification to abduction prevention.

MonkeySee videos are broken into short segments, allowing parents and caregivers to watch separate NCMEC videos in the series, choose topics of interest, and pick up where they left off.

NCMEC and MonkeySee are using the power or online media to help protect children and inform their guardians about potentially dangerous situations.

Helpful Links:
www.monkeysee.com/missingandexploited
www.missingkids.com

Weigh in on the Child Harness Trend

Most child harnesses just seem cruel. Visually, they are one step above walking a Chihuahua . Now that I have two young children instead of just one, child harnesses seem safe and practical, especially the Blue Ridge Grow With Me Purse or Backpack with Harness.

The over-the-shoulder toddler-sized purse in two-tone pink sports white concentric circles and a flower on the flap. The backpack looks sporty in orange, blue, and lime green, and features a mesh sippy-cup holder with elastic grip.

The waist tether, which comes in pink and blue, respectively, is removable and adjustable.

The Grow With Me Harness is available in the current Babies R Us catalog for just $14.95. (Although the catalog indicates this item is available online, I have been unable to locate it on the website). For no more than the cost of a regular shoulder and chest harness, you can keep track of young children at the mall or the fair without trapping them in strollers (and possibly forgo a diaper bag, if you pack just a diaper and wipes).

My daughter wants the harness at Target that looks like a puppy ($9.99). She said that since I will not allow her to have a dog, I can take her and her brother for walks on their new leashes. "It will be just like walking puppies!" They also have a bear. The fair just came through our town, and I hear tell of a monkey harness for the same price at Wal-Mart that appears to be all the rage.

And yes, I have a humor piece on Imperfect Parent.com, which you can link to at left, called "Stick a Fork In It," which includes my tongue-in-cheek impression of the child harness trend. Shameless plug over...

Child harnesses...hip and happenin' or heinous?