Remember Little Red Riding Hood? I always thought that she
was rather *ahem* a little bit silly and naïve to have fallen for the Wolf’s
porky pies and that her and Gradma should have been a little more street-wise and
they wouldn’t have been eaten in the first place.
But here’s the thing: Little Red Riding Hood reminds me of Becky,
and quite a few of her friends, actually. Kind, curious, open-minded, chatty
and friendly, Becky, like most of her peers, has that innocence and naivety that
defines children and makes them the wonderful and unique little things that
they are.
But with this innocence and purity comes danger, too. For we
live in a world, where, unfortunately, we have to take some of that naivety
away, and educate our children about the bad things out there, about the dangers
they could be facing. The real life Big, Bad Wolf, if you will.
Over the last year or so, as Becky has grown into a
confident and outgoing little person, I have often wondered how we can teach
her to be wary of strangers and the dangers out there without destroying this
precious and indeed so delightful innocence and uncorrupted curiosity in life
and the world.
How can I protect my gorgeous little girl from nasty people
who mean her harm?
For as much as I love that she is a confident little person
who isn’t scared of people, one day it could be the wrong person she
encounters, the one with the bad intentions, and then what?
We therefore speak to Becky regularly about “stranger
danger” and try to instil a degree of caution and suspicion into her, while
trying not to spoil that endearing trust she has in the world. We have read
books that explain that there are nasty people out there and regularly point
out examples of situations that she needs to be careful in. And she knows not
to speak to people that she doesn’t know and only when Mummy and Daddy are
there. She knows all that.
No comments
Post a Comment