Learn To Defend You & Your Family

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Sadly in the world we live in today, personal safety is an issue we have to be concerned about and that concern extends to our families. I have been thinking about this a lot the past few days. The Man is highly trained in personal safety issues as is one of my sisters and we have many friends who are equally skilled. It's great to have such fantastic resources available to me and I will admit to being a bit spoiled to the extend that I've become a little too secure in having them around and haven't kept up my preparedness and observation.

I read this article by a former Navy Seal that reminded me I need to always be paying attention. It also taught me how many interesting weapons are available to us, things like a good flashlight. I remember a college friend teaching me to carry a tennis racket in my car to use as protection if I had to walk alone after dark.

From this article I also relearned with a greater sense of clarity and maturity why I never get to sit facing the rest of the restaurant when The Man and I are out. When I first met him I honestly thought he was being a little selfish and rude about where he had to sit when we went out. Even when I began to understand I still thought it was a little over the top. Not anymore.

Over time I wondered why he was so fussy about where and how he parked. The backing in thing was a little "over the top." Not anymore. I now realize that all these things were done with safety in mind and protecting me and our family, not to try to get the best seat or best parking spot. Humble lesson learned.

My next thought was, what are we doing to prepare The Bug to know what to do in these same situations. What if something happened at her school? It is no guarantee that her Dad or I will be around to protect her if she does find herself in such a situation.  But with a little training she could do a great deal to protect herself and possibly others too. That is an amazing thought.

So next week, while my "super hero" sister is here, we are going to do a little training. Things like how to get away if someone grabs you (there are some amazingly effective strategies), best places to take cover, know your surroundings, defend yourself, school emergency scenarios, etc. We'll also cover fire drills, home and family emergencies too. And we also have a new phone number that The Bug needs to learn.

See how we did this when she was barely three here. If your kids don't know your phone number, this is a super method to teach them even as young as one year old. It's also great to have an emergency contact list in your wallet/purse, car glove box, with a trusted neighbor, family friends and members of the family. This should include work and school contact info, extended family contact info, etc.

I'm doing more reading on personal safety this week and thinking more about how I can minimize the risks for our family. There are lots of helpful articles and links online. Another fantastic resource is friends who are trained in law enforcement or the military. They are always happy to talk shop and can give a few helpful tactics to keep you safe. I am also making plans to add some new defensive lessons to my skill set. While we can't guarantee our safety, we can improve the chances that we survive. How about you? Are you concerned and taking any precautions or do you have plans to do things differently?