Parents are often filled with fears: fears about their child’s health and safety, fears about employment and financial stability, or fears about their home and keeping it. While there are no guarantees in life, there are a number of things that you can do to help ensure the safety of your children and your home.
Be well insured
Being well insured all the way around is one of the best ways to protect not only your home and your child, but yourself and all your property. Even if you rent, you should research renters insurance options. Make sure you have the following:
- Car insurance
- Health insurance
- Life Insurance
- Short and/or long term disability insurance
- Homeowners’ insurance (if you own)
- Renter’s insurance (if you rent)
Insurance can also include things like roadside assistance for your vehicle, and an emergency savings account that has enough funds in it to cover three to six months worth of expenses.
Insurance is something that you hope you never need to use, but the peace of mind of having it is well worth it. When you have a child, insurance becomes even more important as they get sick and need to see the doctor or start driving.
Protect your child
Child safety is critical, and it changes form as your child grows. When she’s a newborn, crawling infant or toddler, child safety includes covering electrical outlets, cushioning sharp corners and edges, securing heavy furniture, and making sure blind and curtain cords aren’t dangling within reach. You should also ensure that your car seat is securely and properly installed, even if it means asking the local police or fire department for assistance.
By elementary school age, it becomes talks about stranger danger, looking both ways before crossing the street and ensuring that they don’t ride their bikes in the middle of the road. Depending on their age, weight, and height, they may still need some form of car seat during this stage, too.
The teen years include safety such as discussing dating and sex, learning how to drive, and making sure that your car insurance is hefty enough to handle any accidents that might happen.
Ensuring your child’s safety and future will likely never feel easy, but as long as you keep trying, you’ll be able to ease your mind and make things a little less scary for yourself and your child.
Keep the home secure
Home safety takes many forms, too. You need to protect your home from intruders with locked doors and windows, bright lighting, and perhaps even an alarm system.
You should protect the home from fire with smoke and fire detectors, ensuring that you change the batteries and test the detectors often. Regular checks of the electrical wiring and other major systems like HVAC, plumbing, and large appliances can also protect the home from fires, floods, and mold.
Protecting your home can also help protect your child. Covering electrical outlets not only protects your child from harming themselves by poking a fork into it, but protects the home from fire in that same instance. Putting lighters up out of your child’s reach protects your child from burning themselves and from starting a fire that could destroy your home.
Protecting your family and the things your family loves will give you peace of mind that lets you sleep easily at night.