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Summary: Required Reading for Parents and Educators
Review: Gavin De Becker uses his experience, statistics, and extensive research to develop a method for keeping children safe. His method contradicts accepted wisdom in some areas, but he backs up his method with statistics. For example, most children are told to find a police officer when they are lost. De Becker recommends instructing children to find someone who looks like a mommy instead. His reasoning is that most children can't tell the difference between a police officer and anyone else in an official looking uniform. Most of the time, a child will pick a man when looking for a police officer. A man is much more likely to harm a child than a woman is. By instructing a child to find someone who looks like a mommy, you are directing your child to find someone who is statistically the least likely to harm them and the most likely to help them. In addition, De Becker exposes who is most likely to harm a child, and it isn't who the media leads you to think. I can't say enough about this book. I plan to give it to all my daughter's teachers. I also plan to lobby for safety education based on the concepts in this book rather than traditional "stranger danger" concepts.
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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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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: "...there is one child molester per square mile."
Review: That fact from the US Department of Justice referenced on page 16 of Gavin De Beckers books is only one example of the reality in our world. You think you know how to protect your children, but do you? Mr. DeBecker has taught me more in the first 30 pages of his book than I ever could imagine. Trust your intuition, we have it for a reason. Violence is a reality. "Reality is the highest ground you can find-and the safest-because from there you can see what's coming." I bought this book for myself and two friends, we all just had our first children. I can't read it fast enough. BUY IT! READ IT! And tell your friends about it, children are our greatest gift and our future.
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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: A MUST READ FOR ALL PARENTS!
Review: After reading this book, my husband "pestered" me for about 1 1/2 months to read this book. I said I would get around to it after I finished some other books. While I care about my children, I was not thrilled at the prospect of reading scary stories about bad things happening to children and put it off for awhile. Well, after I read it, I understood why he was so persistent. I came away feeling more confident and empowered and realized how important our "gut instincts" are, and how there are some really simple concepts to teach our children without giving them gory details about bad people and what might happen to them. Great book! By the way, my husband has bought about 20 copies already and given them to family, friends and neighbors...that is how strongly he feels about this book.
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Summary: A Definite Must Buy for All Parents
Review: My Dad is a retired FBI agent, and I cannot express how much I learned from reading Gavin de Becker's book. I thought that I knew a lot from my Dad, but as a parent I wanted to learn the best way to protect my child from predators. This book is exactly what parents need to take control and not feel as though the bad guys are in charge. This is a MUST read for every worried parent out there.
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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: 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: Another smashing success for Gavin De Becker.....
Review: I almost gave this book four stars, but only because it has a few flaws, where De Becker's THE GIFT OF FEAR was not only flawless, but taught me more than any one book has ever taught me. Still, this is a powerful book. I read it without stopping for sleep, so I can assure you that it is indeed well written. De Becker shows parents and other adults every facet of possible victimization of children and how to avoid it. When he is teaching his readers, which is always, he uses brilliant examples that we can all relate to. Take this as an example: "I would ask which is sillier: waiting a moment for the next elevator, or placing her child and herself into a soundproof sterel chamber with a stranger she is afraid of?" Succinctly, he teaches, in that one sentence, so much. How many times have all of us pushed ourselves into an elevator with someone who made us afraid? De Becker's challenge is to empower us as parents, and empower us he does, just as he empowered us in THE GIFT OF FEAR. He instructs us all on using our intuition to make life or death decisions. I can still recall a time when my son, then just very small, and I were staying at a luxurious hotel. We went to the top-floor pool and walked right into a burglary. How I managed to get myself and my son out of there calmly and completely is a testament to De Becker's lessons on the incredible strength of a mother whose baby is threatened. De Becker teaches us all new ways of thinking and new ways of being and new ways of protecting our children and ourselves from abuse, abduction, violence, crime. De Becker's appendices are worthwhile, too, with listings of excellent books and important organizations. This is a book I would recommend to anyone who loves a baby, child, or adolescent.
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