Host: What is some advice for parents and children to stay safer during the summer?

Nancy McBride: I think the best advice to parents or children to stay safer during the summer months is to really communicate and talk to each other and set the guidelines out about where kids can go, what they can do, who needs to be supervising them during these activities, if they are allowed to go to places like parks, who needs to go with them. Talk about bodies of water in the community, whether it is a lake or a pool, make sure kids know they need to be supervised before they go to these different areas and that there is somebody around with them, who could help them if they were ever in trouble and I think the other most important thing to talk to your kids about is if anybody should approach them while they are playing in their yard, while they are walking with their friends somewhere, that the child knows not to respond to that person and to get away from that person as quickly as possible and speak to their parent or guardian about the fact that they were approached.

So, during the summer is a good opportunity to remind everybody to stay alert, stay aware and it is probably a good idea to talk about venues like amusement parks, or public areas where large groups of people might be. This is a good time to go over the rules with your kids about staying together in the park or the amusement area and making sure if your kids are allowed to go on rides or allowed to do something in the park, that you set rules for them about what that is going to be like, when they can do it and how long they are able to do it and make sure you have got a place for everybody to meet back together and a time, so that nobody is lost and nobody is confused about where we are going to meet and how long we can stay there.