Replies

You're right that stopping the evil is a task for adults, but like most of us, I don't intend to leave ANY stone unturned in trying to keep my children safe. People have mentioned a lot of different tactics on this thread, and no doubt, depending on personalities, stress reactions, etc., some would work better for certain children than others. Each parent has to figure out how best to teach their children to be safe. There also is no substitute for a watchful parent. The story that really got to me was the one, was it last year, where the woman grabbed a child from a shopping cart while the mother loaded the car. I think the perpetrator had been cruising a Wal Mart parking lot or something, but the child was recovered very quickly. As paranoid as I am, I would not have thought that mother was in a dangerous situation, but now I do. I told my own mother this morning that I feel like I won't let my son walk to the mailbox till he is twenty years old. And while I want to raise my son to be respectful to adults, etc., I am also thinking very hard about how I will teach him to fight with every fiber of his being if something like this ever happened to him. I do think children have got to be taught to fight off attackers. I agree with you 110% that this shouldn't be necessary, but in today's world, I am convinced that it is essential.