Kids Self-Defense: Being Confident

Video Transcript

"Today we're talking about kid's safety and don?t be shy is the phrase that you'll hear people talk about a lot in the self defense world. Don't be shy, is so much easier said than done. For a child especially, they can't help who they are. They can't help being insecure or unfamiliar with things and that's one of the first things that they do, is they shy away but you'll need to help your child just learn to be a little more self confident and not even using that phrase, Don't be shy. Teaching them to be aware of their surroundings is going to be their very first line of defense in keeping themselves safe. You want teach them the eye contact, keeping their head up and looking around and you want to just show some assertiveness in the things that you do and helping your child do that as well. Attackers, unfortunately, are looking for kids who are unsuspecting. Kids who are only paying attention to themselves or just right around them. They're also looking for kids who won't talk. So encourage a dialogue between you and your child about safety issues, about things at school, anything at all. You have to have an open line of communication so that your child will feel safe coming to you in the event that, something happened at school or I noticed something with this other person. They need to feel safe coming to you and also they need to understand that talking about those important issues is vital for their own safety but also for the community as well. For anyone who is attacked or assaulted and they don't say something, then that perpetrator then is still out there. Maybe doing it to somebody else. So talk to your child about safety issues, about being aware of their surroundings, and feeling free coming talking to you about things that are going on around them. So, don?t be shy, although is a little clich?, we need to teach our children to be a little more assertive and open to talking to us about things that help to keep them safe."