Let’s face it: we’re all busier than we’d like to be. It’s a miracle we have any time to think, let alone plan for the coming week or day or hour.
Being busy is no excuse to cut corners where it matters most, though. Your overscheduled tribe deserves the utmost in safety and security every bit as much as those laid-back doppelgangers living off the grid in the woods somewhere.
If you haven’t had the time to think intentionally about your family safety lately, don’t sweat it. You’re certainly not alone. Just add these five tips to your to-do list.
1. Don’t Just Lock Your Car — Secure It
Cars are pretty sophisticated these days, but they’re not yet theft-proof. Nor are their contents any less vulnerable to pilfering. Consider add-on security products like biometric car locks and wheel locks. Whatever they lack in fashion sense, they make up in, well, preventing car theft. This is an important part of family safety that is often overlooked.
2. Invest in a Mobile-Friendly Home Security System
Gone are the days of clunky control panel security systems for which you can never quite seem to remember the code. Everyone loves a good false alarm call, right?
Read the latest home security reviews, then choose the modern, mobile-friendly configuration that fits your home’s layout. Bear in mind that most systems can be customized, with additional sensors and cameras as needed for
3. Get a Remote Video Doorbell
Augment your home security system with a remote video doorbell that lets you observe and chat with people (and, from time to time, backyard animals) on your doorstep. Once you’ve gained the ability to pretend you’re home when you’re in fact miles away, you won’t soon relinquish it. This might seem like an extravagant luxury, but it can be an important part of family safety and over home security for you.
4. Have a Family Safety Plan
Devise a comprehensive family safety plan that accounts for a range of common emergency situations: house fire, burglary or home invasion, missing family member, natural disaster or civil emergency. Have adequate emergency supplies to endure a 72-hour power outage, including communications equipment (like a hand-crank radio) that doesn’t rely on cellular networks or the electricity grid.
5. Keep Close Tabs on Your Kids’ Online Habits
Whole books have been written about online safety and how to keep kids safe online, and you probably have some ideas of your own. One relatively uncontroversial step you can take: friend or follow your kids on whatever age-appropriate social media apps and games they use, then combine parental controls and old-fashioned stalking to monitor their activities and associations. As they get older, they’ll earn more online privileges and may chafe at oversight, but that shouldn’t stop you from striking a fair balance. Online safety is arguably the most important part of family safety.
Safety Is Too Important to Compromise
Life is full of compromises. In the past week alone, you’ve probably scrapped a scratch-made dinner idea after remembering that late meeting across town, goaded your youngest into accepting a lesser (cheaper) game, and grudgingly agreed to start on that Netflix series hubby has been dying to watch for weeks. Who knows what other sacrifices you’ve had to make.
Some things are too important to compromise, though. Your family’s safety and security tops that list. If you’re still on the fence about adding these five steps to your to-do list, just remember that the unthinkable isn’t impossible.
