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Summary: Powerful! Enlightening!
Review: The parts of this book that were hard to read were the very parts that I needed to educate myself on. I feel much more equipped to recognize danger and to teach my children how to be safe. Most importantly, DeBecker teaches us to trust our instincts. Great reading! ESSENTIAL to parents.
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Summary: Should be mandatory reading
Review: This book has changed my entire perspective on daily living. I suggest it to any parents or even any women involved with children (I am making my mother read it as she does the majority of babysitting), I also suggest any person involved with any child at any time should read this book. If it were made to be mandatory reading I believe the crime rate would drop across the globe. I also believe the lessons in this book should be taught to children in school. "safety" should be a class as any other "math", "english" etc. out of all the lessons this would be the most valuable. Gavin writes in clear concise layman terms that don't leave you to ponder what he meant. I like the way he gives examples and walks you through each tragic event. (making them tragic helps you to remember). Starting these lessons today can greatly improve your childs future and I suggest anyone with any age child should read (my boy is 8 months old!) Definately worth every cent (and I paid $34 for it as I am in Canada!)
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Summary: If I knew then, what I know now...
Review: This book reinforced some of the personal safety strategies I was already teaching my child, as well as introduced me to new ones. For example, I was taught "Never Talk to Strangers" and "Ask a Police Officer for help." Well, the one time I did get lost as a child, I was smack dab in the middle of a group of strangers, and not a uniformed police officer in the bunch. Figure the odds? But I followed the "stranger" rule to the letter (enough to make any mother proud, right?). Luckily, the adult that offered to help me find my family was simply a nice man that recognized a child in distress and not a predator that saw his next victim. De Becker questions the "Stranger" rule, the "Policeman" rule, as well as other rules parents believe will help keep their children safe. And the questions may have parents reevaluating the effectiveness of these rules. De Becker also gives strategies that won't leave you, or your children, afraid but rather empowered.This book covers a range of child safety techniques, from skills parents can teach their children, how to interview a nanny, baby sitter or day care provider, what questions to ask school administrators about your child's safety at school, what to do if a stranger approaches, spotting a sexual predator to recognizing potentially dangerous situations (predators generally like privacy and the ability to control their victim). There are many "real life" stories that demonstrate successful, and unsuccessful, strategies. And they aren't just for kids. After reading this book, I realized there are many behaviors I needed to "unlearn" to reduce my chances of becoming a victim. I recommend this book to anyone that loves a child or is responsible for the safety of children.
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Summary: Save our Kids
Review: This book, if followed will take the gift of fear an enable us to use it to protect our most precious gift, our children. De Becker shows through more stories specific to the subject of protecting children from predators of all types. Helping children be aware of how a stranger could actually lie to them to get them to respond and strike up a conversation, then.... Teach our children this, we will limit the number of child abductions and violence against children.
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Summary: Important! A MUST READ!
Review: This is a must read for anyone who works with children, teaches children, raises children. This is about keeping them safe. I have heard, I don't know how many times, 'it used to be safer...' 'we didn't used to worry so much' 'everyone knew who everyone else was'. This is not the case any more. This book is important. For someone like me, who was raised in a small neighborhood where everyone knew everyone, this is an important book. For someone like me who was raised in a different time and in a different place, this was a valuable book to read. This was an excellent book for me to read when I had children. It is one I am keeping on my shelf for future reading and reminding. Well worth reading.
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Summary: Read this book to protect your kids NOW!
Review: This is such an timely topic right now, and this book addresses the most important aspect of keeping kids safe: Understanding that instincts are the key to staying safe. Often, we're taught in childhood to disregard our gut-level feelings, yet this is what helps us survive. This book tells you how to teach your kids to listen to theirs -- and for YOU to listen, too. It also addresses the scary fact that most kids who are abducted actually know their abductors. You learn not only what parents should look out for, but what to teach kids to look out for. Yes, you should talk to your kids about abduction and the dangers that lie in wait, and this book tells you how to do that. "Protecting the Gift," along with "Be Alert, Be Aware, Have A Plan: The Complete Guide to Protecting Yourself, Your Home, Your Family," are the two most important books you can read to protect your kids -- and give yourself peace of mind.
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Summary: BUY THIS BOOK, YOU'RE LUCKY YOU COME ACROSS IT!
Review: This is the great book! I had many questions about my child safety and this book addresses them all. Most important question for me was how to protect kid from abuse not from strangers, but from people she knows, like teachers, baby-sitters, older kids.
If you are a responsible parent, you've got to read this book. By collective efford of many parents we can diminish horrible violence in our schools. THe auther gives you tools to do just that. I'm planning to go tomorrow to the school principle and raise safety issues like he advises.
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Rating:
Summary: Buy it for yourself and those who take care of your child
Review: While expecting our first baby and then as new parents, my wife and I received loads of excellent advice from friends and family regarding childbirth, doctors, baby-care, day-care, formula brands, etc. Last week, as a father with 8 weeks of experience in parenting, I had my first opportunity to offer advice to an expectant parent. I suggested she visit two day care centers I had liked, visit the pediatrician my wife and I chose, and read Protecting the Gift by Gavin de Becker. Gavin de Becker makes his living predicting and preventing violent behavior. His firm provides security and consultation to celebrities, athletes, world leaders, the CIA, U. S. Supreme Court and other security organizations around the world. In Protecting the Gift, de Becker introduces parents to startling statistics revealing the violent reality of our culture: one in four girls and one in six boys will be sexually molested by the time they reach adulthood; 90 percent of sexual abuse is committed by someone the child knows; the most common age that sexual abuse begins is when the child is three years old. Most parents live with a mindset that denies or ignores this reality. But as de Becker shows in his book, our children are living in this reality everyday. De Becker's purpose in this book is two-fold: 1) to hit parents in the face with the real dangers awaiting children, and 2) to teach parents how to avoid fruitless worry and to take meaningful steps to protect children. On both points, de Becker succeeds. Parents are raising children during an age when an FBI child-pornography sting indicts teachers, coaches, pastors and judges. It is an age of guns and date-rape drugs. At the same time, many parents experience an urgent need for help in raising children, often from the age of six-weeks onward. Parents look for family, day care workers, sitters, schools, nannies and friends to provide support in raising children. How can parents assure their children's safety? De Becker addresses this question by first focusing on the fact that violent behavior can be predicted. The book teaches that children can be taught skills to avoid dangerous situations and people. He emphasizes the development and use of intuition as a parent's key resource in recognizing threats. He cites numerous stories of people avoiding harm by listening to intuition and others who ignored intuition and became victims.
De Becker shares many practical lessons. He teaches what to look for in safe child-care workers and sitters. He lists the signs that indicate a dangerous stranger versus a friendly stranger. He also illustrates ways that well-meaning parents do things that increase a child's vulnerabilities. The Bible teaches that wolves dress in sheep's clothing and that evil-doers masquerade as angels of light. Nothing fits this description more precisely than a sexual predator of children. De Becker teaches that pedophiles and rapists often gain the confidence of their victims through being overly "nice" and "helpful." They have to do this. How else can a pedophile convince parents to trust him or her with their children. Over and over, we see that pedophiles go to where they can have access to children and, like chameleons, blend in perfectly.
I think people in the church today are especially susceptible to this type of criminal, because the presence of evil has been downplayed and we are usually willing to give people the benefit of the doubt and accept them at face-value. De Becker shows parents how to remove doubt and to know who can and cannot be trusted. There are several other topics in this book that I think are important to parents. The book cover summarizes one of de Becker's purposes in writing it: "By showing what danger really looks like-as opposed to what we might imagine it looks like-de Becker gives parents freedom from many common worries and unwarranted fears." A lasting impression I take from the book is that the people with whom I and my family interact are who they are not who I want them to be. I know that some people are influenced by perverse and evil desires aimed at children. Because of this truth, I think it is important that parents read this book. I also suggest that adults, especially women, read de Becker's bestseller The Gift of Fear.
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Summary: Mandatory Reading For All Moms & Dads
Review: Wow!! This book changed my whole perspective on parenting. It's my job to raise AND PROTECT these little ones. I feel empowered and informed and know now to trust my instincts. This was not an easy book to read with graphic stories,etc. but I forced myself to keep going and face reality.
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