Children need to feel safe; they develop better in an environment which they can trust is secure. Things like consistency in parents or guardians can be a great help but other, smaller factors may be useful in contributing to your child’s overall sense of wellbeing.
One of the things you can do to help ease your own nerves and those of your kids is to set up a child friendly area in your home in which you can trust nothing’s going to happen to your kids. There are all sorts of factors to look into here, the area needs to be physically safe as well as psychologically stimulating and not damaging in the slightest.
Physical safety is the simplest to quantify but perhaps the most difficult to enact. Some things go without saying though. Make sure all windows are whole and not cracked and that any glass your kids can reach is double glazed and tough. Remove any exposed electrics or potentially dangerous chemicals (medicines or cleaning fluids). Any sharp corners or edges will need to be covered and locks should be put on all doors and windows so that you can ensure your child stays in the allocated area and that no one else can get in from the outside. If you’ve chosen a room upstairs then make sure than any stairways are blocked off with child gates or similar so that there’s no way for them to fall down the stairs!
Emotional safety looks at the way you and any other adults in the area talk to your child. It’s important to validate and encourage them in their learning as this will encourage them to explore and increase their knowledge generally which is important for emotional growth. Ignoring a child or making them feel like an irritation could well stunt emotional growth for years to come.
Emergency readiness is important in any area you’re creating for kids to spend time in. Both you and they need to know how to escape the area in case of disaster and so you should take them through the quickest way out of the building a few times to make sure they remember it. It’s also a good idea to have an emergency preparedness kit with a first aid kid and any other bits you think might be useful for you in your area. E.g. in some places flooding or extreme weather may be common, prepare for these things!
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