"If a stranger tries to grab you, scream and run. Don’t take gifts from people you don’t know. And don’t follow anyone anywhere." Does this sound familiar? Whether they’re walking to and from school by themselves or visiting their friends’ homes, parents quickly learn that the only one that can be with our child a 100% of the time is our child. While these instructions are a great start to helping them keep safe, they can also create dilemmas for children.
If you’re as old as I am, you may remember how the message of Stranger Danger – which started sometime in the 80’s – often frightened and confused children. If they’re in an emergency, do they talk to police officers, or reach out to a nearby adult-in-charge for help, people who are also strangers?
At best, the outdated message created confused kids and also discouraged their natural friendliness, and at worst, they didn’t learn the reality of true danger, and possibly walked into dangerous situations with unsuspected people. Many of those dangerous people turned out not to be strangers, but people the children already knew (according to the FBI and National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, in 76% of kidnappings, relatives or acquaintances abduct children).
So, we have a potent combination here: you, the parent, who wants their children to be safe; an outdated message that teaches our children the wrong ideas, and confusion for children who need to know how to be safe on their own. What’s a parent to do?
To help parents walk this delicate line, I wrote "Cautious Fred", a rhyming story of a little green frog walking home from school through a thick, eerie bog. Along the way, he meets several shifty characters – a crafty croc, a sneaky snake, a beautiful but sharp-clawed lizard, and other creatures. With his mother’s advice ringing in his ears, Freddy must remember to keep safe on his own.
The story is designed to teach elementary-aged children how to be cautious when they are by themselves. The book presents several different situations children should find suspicious, and teaches them how to navigate each one by using their critical thinking skills and following their intuition that is based on parental training.
I’ve launched a Kickstarter project to raise funds in order for Cautious Fred to be printed and distributed and read all over the world. Below is where you can learn more and help support this important Kickstarter project.
More info: bit.do
Cautious Fred Book Cover
Crafty Croc
Sneaky Snake
