It’s Christmas time and the next month will be filled with school events, community gatherings, and a whole lot of socializing. For many parents, this can be a nice change of pace and gives you the opportunity to catch up with other parents and share craft and recipe ideas for the festive season.
But with all of this excitement in moving around and dragging often-unwilling children from function to function, it does have the potential to get a bit much. There is often a hundred and one things to get done, while also ensuring that your children remain safe over the course of the festive season. How are you to possibly keep an eye on everything?
VIGILANCE
The number one rule for any parent of young children is vigilance. That is, keep an eye on everything at all times. If you are unable to make sure they don’t get into trouble, delegating responsibility to a trusted, responsible adult is another solution to ensuring your children stay out of danger.
This is true both at home and in public. Keep a tight grasp of your child’s hand (even if it embarrasses them) if you’re out and about, especially at Christmas Markets or school productions. If you’re at home, make sure to blow out any candles and avoid gifting anything with super small parts.
DON’T GET COMPLACENT
After so many years of doing the same thing and having nothing go wrong, it is understandable to develop complacency when it comes to checking everything is as it should be. This can range from checking they’ve washed their hands after playing outside, to making sure to fasten their seatbelts.
The holiday season can bring out both the best and the worse in people. This is particularly true when completing cross-country travels, and especially true if the roads are less than ideal. It is crucial to take extra special care when undertaking long drives, particularly with children in the car. If you do suffer an accident on your travels to granny and grandpa, firms such as Powers McCartan can offer advice regarding the correct steps to take moving forward.
DELEGATE KITCHEN ASSISTANCE WISELY
If you’re making Christmas Cookies, baking cakes or preparing Christmas dinner, your kids might just want to lend you a helping hand. While it’s cute of them to offer to help, keep in mind that children are not as strong as you. In the case of younger ones, they do not yet have fully fine-tuned motor skills.
With this considered, you want to try and involve the kids in fun Christmas kitchen activities – it might even inspire them to take up cooking in the future – but you need to give them tasks that suit their age and abilities. That is, keep them away from the hot stove, and instead give them jobs such as sprinkling cake decorations or taking charge of the mixing bowl. Not only will they feel involved, but also teaching them about potential dangers will allow them to behave in future situations.
Christmas is all about family and having fun. But there’s nothing fun about an unfortunate incident happening over the festive months. Keep smart, and keep in mind your child’s safety, and there shouldn’t be any problems.
Jessica Lippe 