This mum’s story demonstrates that we all need to teach our kids exactly how to identify a potential predator or dangerous person.
For years, the phrase was “stranger danger” but this is a very ambiguous phrase.
It doesn’t clarify what to look out for or the fact that someone a child already knows could pose a risk.
Jodie Norton's story of how her children were able to identify dangerous people will give you the chills.
Mum-of-four Jodie woke up one morning to find she had an agonising pain in her side.
“It was an unbearable pain that had me doubled over, light-headed, and incredibly nauseous," she explained.
“I somehow got enough clothes on my body to be decent, and drove my four kids and myself five minutes to our small town ER.”
Jodie’s eldest two children had to go to school, so her parents arranged for a neighbour to come and pick the boys up.
Jodie asked the two boys, aged eight and 10, to wait at the door of the ER, expecting the neighbour to be there within five minutes.
In hindsight, she says she wouldn't have left them, but the pain was so strong, she wasn't thinking straight. She took her younger kids with her while she awaited treatment.
Jodie found out a ruptured ovarian cyst was causing her unbearable pain. But the worst shock of the day was yet to come.
After school, Jodie found out her boys had been late to school as they’d had to wait 40 minutes for the neighbour to get there.
Jodie had assumed the neighbour was coming from his own house five minutes away, but he was not at home when he got the call.
She was horrified when her boys told her how they had been approached by 'creepy' people while patiently waiting outside.
“They were approached by an adult female and two punk males who asked them if they’d ‘help them out by going into the bathroom where her boyfriend was hiding from the doctor, and see if they could convince him to come out and get treated.’”
Even after her son replied, “No, thank you”, they kept at them, saying, “Please? You could really save his life if you’d just go in that bathroom and tell him it’s safe to come out.”
Jodie’s eldest boy, CJ, kept politely saying “No, thank you”, before they finally let up.
Jodie says: “Shortly afterward, the neighbour showed up and my boys jumped in his car but, not before they saw a third adult male come out from the bathroom, jump into the car with these other three hooligans, and drive off.”
Jodie was relieved when CJ told her that he used the family's “stay rules” to identify “tricky people”.
CJ said: “Mom, I knew they were tricky people, because they were asking us for help. Adults don’t ask kids for help.”
Jodie explains on her blog how she had taught her kids the “tricky people” rule after reading Safely Ever After, by Pattie Fitzgerald.
The author says it’s more important to tell children how to identify a dangerous stranger rather than forbidding them to speak to any strangers.
Pattie says: “Stop telling your kids not to talk to strangers. They might need to talk to a stranger one day. Instead, teach them which sorts of strangers are safe.”
One of her guidelines for knowing what people are unsafe is the rule CJ remembered – tricky people ask kids for help. If a safe adult needs help, they’ll ask another adult; not a kid.
Jodie asks other parents to talk about “tricky people” with their kids and go over safety rules.
“Hold family meetings where you talk about and role play these concepts periodically."
"This experience has made me grateful that we had gone over this in the past, but even more so, it’s made me determined to continue going over these stay safe rules.”
