How to pick the best security system for your home

Kids love animals and are naturally drawn to them. But even the most obedient pet can nip, scratch, or even bite a child if provoked. We all know children are curious. Tugging on Kitty’s tail or interrupting Buster while he is eating is never a good idea and could get your child hurt.

Do not let this deter you from getting a pet if you have a child, and please do not keep your child away from the family’s current pet because of fear that your child may get hurt by them. Pets are good for kids, and kids are good for pets.

Here are a few tips to follow to help keep your kids safe and your pets happy too:

-  Spay or neuter your pet. Studies have shown that spayed or neutered pets are less likely to bite than pets that are not. Spaying and neutering your pet also helps them live happier and healthier lives; not to mention it helps reduce pet overpopulation.

-  Enroll your dog in obedience classes. If your dog has a mind of his own and does not listen to basic commands, or decides he wants to jump on everyone and everything, it would be beneficial to enroll him or her in basic obedience training. You do not want a large dog running around out of control in your home; your child could easily be injured in the process.

- Treat your pet like family. You keep up with your child’s immunizations, so why not keep up with your animal’s immunizations as well? Keeping your pet’s shots up to date will help guard them against certain diseases that can harm your pet and even your child.

-  Use flea and tick prevention methods. Use products designed to safeguard your pet against fleas and ticks. Fleas and ticks are not only bothersome, but ticks can also spread diseases such as Lyme disease and ehrlichiosis on to your family members and pets.

-  Never tie a pet up outside or isolate him/her from the rest of the family for long periods of time. This can cause your pet to feel unwanted and could cause aggression. Keep your pet around you and other family members as much as possible.

-  Know your pet’s moods. Like humans, pets enjoy a little private time to themselves. If you see your cat or dog wants to be left alone, make sure your small child does not bother them at this time. They could easily get bitten or scratched. Even a loud bark or hiss could scare your child and make him or her further fear your pet. Keep them away from your pet during their alone time to avoid this from happening.

-  Avoid petting in the wrong places. Teach your children to approach your pets slowly and never pet them on their head or face area. Instead, they should gently stroke your cat or dog along their back, belly, neck, or on their sides.

-  Teach your kids never to pull. Kids are infamous for pulling pet’s ears and tails, and that is why so many children are scratched, bitten, and nipped at each year.

Having a pet in your home can be a positive and rewarding experience for you, and especially your children. Pets teach kids compassion and offer them companionship. If you teach your children these basic animal safety tips early on, you will help eliminate any future problems between your children and your pets later on down the road.

Over 30,000 children each year die from accidental poisoning caused by common consumer products found in the home. That is a very disturbing number, considering that child poisoning is 100% preventable.

Nevertheless, everyone knows that accidents can happen. Here are some tips to help you limit the risk of a child being poisoned in your home, along with advice on how to handle an accidental poisoning should one occur.

Keep Poisons Stored Properly

When you think of poisons, cleaning products, medications, and nutritional supplements certainly aren’t the first things to come to mind. Even so, these simple products in the hands and mouth of a child could cause more harm than you ever thought possible.

Make sure to store all medications, cleaning products, and any obvious poisons, such as bug spray or rat poison, out of your child’s reach. Childproof any drawers or cabinet doors that you store these products in to ensure that your child cannot easily get to them.

Types of Poisoning

Inhaled Poison – If for some reason your child inhales poisonous fumes inside of your home, immediately take him or her outside to get fresh air. If your child stops breathing, you must perform CPR until he or she starts breathing on their own. Make sure to open all doors and windows of your home so that it can air out properly.

Swallowed Poison – Should your child swallow a poisonous substance, do not panic! In the past, parents were instructed to give their children ipecac syrup to force their child to vomit after swallowing a poison; however, the American Academy of Pediatrics now advises parents not to do this.

Instead, you should immediately contact the Poison Control Center at 1-800-222-1222 for further instructions. They will ask you basic information about your child such as his/her age, weight, and they will ask what type of poison your child ingested.

Try to have the container of whatever poison that your child swallowed in-hand when you call, as this will make it easier for the poison control center to come up with a solution. They may or may not instruct you to take your child to the hospital. If they do, remember to take the bottle of the poisonous substance with you when you go.

Skin Poison – Certain chemicals and even plants can cause a child to have a bad skin reaction when touched. Common signs of skin poisoning are: blisters, redness, swelling, and itching. If you notice any of these symptoms, remove your child’s clothing and rinse their skin in warm water for at least 15 minutes.

Eye Poison – If your child gets anything in their eyes that should not have gotten in there, you must flush it out immediately. Open up your child’s eyelid and pour a steady stream of water into the inner corner of the affected eye. Make sure the water you use is of room temperature and not hot water.

You must keep in mind that child-poisoning dangers exist everywhere. When you are on vacation or visiting friends or family, make sure that you keep a close eye on your child. While you may have done all that you can in your own home to poison-proof it, others may have not.

When people get older, their likelihood of becoming victims of criminal activity decline considerably. However, an entire lifetime of knowledge paired with the physical challenges linked to aging, certainly puts the elderly on edge.

The following tips are specifically targeted for seniors and their safety. If you know a senior that is living alone, please pass along these senior safety tips to them.

Safety Starts at Home

-Make sure the perimeter doors of your home are in good condition and that you have strong door locks installed on them—preferably double-cylinder deadbolt locks.

-Never leave your windows open and unsecured. A burglar could crawl in and access your home easily this way. Keep windows locked when you are not home.

-Do not hide a copy of your house key underneath the doormat, in a planter, and certainly not in your mailbox. Burglars look for keys specifically in these places.

-Refrain from opening up your doors to strangers that come over unannounced. If someone comes to your home claiming that they are a service repair man or other vendor, ask for identification and call their company to verify who they are.

Steer Clear of Con Artists Targeting Seniors

-Never give your personal information out over the phone. Any reputable business will not ask you for your social security number, bank account number, or other personal information over the phone. If you are unsure if the business is legitimate, ask the person that is calling for their full name and contact information.

If they are legitimate and have nothing to hide, they will have no problem supplying this information. If they are con artists, they will more than likely hang up.

Verify their information before calling them back. If you do not know how, ask a trusted friend or family member to help you. When in doubt, you can always contact the Better Business Bureau or your local police department for assistance.

-Do not believe any telemarketer that calls you with an offer that sounds too good to be true. Always go with the old saying “If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.”

-Refrain from sending money to anybody who calls or writes and tells you that you won something but need to pay an advance fee to get it.

Stay Safe and Secure When Away from Home

-Never carry a large amount of cash with you when you go out.

-Try to go out with friends or family members. Refrain from always traveling alone.

-Guard your wallet or purse, but do not fight an armed robber if he tries to take it. Money and your purse or wallet can easily be replaced, your life cannot be. If sentimental items that you have in your pocketbook or your wallet are worth fighting for, leave them at home.

-Get your monthly Social Security, benefit, and/or pension payments direct deposited rather than receiving paper checks. It’s more secure that way.

Consider investing in a Personal Emergency Response System (PERS) or have a home security system installed and monitored in your home. Security systems don’t just protect against burglaries anymore.

You can have your system monitor for carbon monoxide leaks, fires, and even medical emergencies. This allows you to have the freedom of living at home on your own terms, but knowing that help will be there should you ever need it.

If you are babysitting any child, that child’s safety should always be your main concern. Parents entrusted you with the care of their child, so it is highly important that they return home to find that their child is safe, happy, and healthy.

If you haven’t done so already, it is important that you take a CPR class and be familiar with applying first aid. Sure, dialing 911 in an emergency is always important, but being able to assist a child in medical need until help arrives could mean all the difference.  Besides, having first aid and CPR knowledge will give you an advantage over other babysitters that do not; possibly resulting in even more babysitting jobs for you.

Here are some more babysitting tips that you are sure to find useful:

Play Safe – When you engage in playtime with the child or children that you are babysitting, make sure that the environment is safe to do so. For instance, if you are playing a game inside of the house, you want to be certain that nobody can get hurt by running into sharp-edged coffee tables or slipping and falling on slick hardwood floors.

If you decide to play board games with the children, make sure that any of the younger children do not get a hold of any small game pieces to put in their mouth and choke on.

Sometimes kids can get really excited when playing. If things get too hectic and you feel like you are losing control of them, call a time-out and let them calm down for a few minutes.

Should you take the kids to a public park or anywhere outdoors, make sure to keep a close eye on them. Besides getting hurt, someone could take them. Keep these children close to you as if they were your own.

Never open the door for anyone – It doesn’t matter if this person claims that they are a close friend or relative of the family, if you do not know them—do not open up the door for them. They may very well be a relative or close friend, but they could also be someone posing as a friend or relative that can do a lot of harm once inside the home.

If the family you are babysitting for did not inform you that relatives or friends may be stopping by, they will understand why you turned them away. They will probably even be impressed that you took the initiative and the security of their children seriously enough to make that decision.

Do not announce that you are just the babysitter – Should you answer the phone at the home where you are babysitting, never tell anyone that is calling that the parents are gone and you are just the babysitter. This makes you and the children an easy target for those who have nothing but bad intentions.

Make sure the parents leave emergency numbers – Before the parents leave you alone with the children, be sure to get contact numbers for them and anyone else you might need to call in the event of an emergency.

There are so many tips to give babysitters that we have barely even scratched the surface. However, these tips will most certainly help you keep the children you are babysitting as well as yourself safe and out of harm’s way.

Traveling to and from your holiday destination can be a really fun and memorable time for you and your loved ones—or it can turn out to be a total road trip nightmare. There is so much that can go right when you travel, but there are just as many things that can wrong too.

Here are a few great holiday travel tips that will surely help you plan a safe and happy holiday trip:

Prepare Your Vehicle For The Trip

If you plan to do some long distance driving to your holiday destination, make sure your car is ready for the trip. If you have been putting off your vehicle’s maintenance or service, now is the time to catch it up.

Make sure your car is in tip-top shape before you leave for your trip. This includes checking your brakes and replacing them if necessary, changing your oil, filters, hoses, making sure your tires have the right pressure, and changing out your wiper blades.

It may seem like a lot of work now, but taking care of your car before you get on the road will help keep it running efficiently throughout your trip. What road trip would be fun being stranded on the side of the road waiting for a tow truck to come and rescue you and your exhausted family?

To add insult to injury, if you think it was a pain servicing your car before your trip, good luck getting your car repaired on a holiday weekend, and at a fair price.

Consider Renting a Car

If you don’t want to bother with vehicle maintenance or service before your trip, you may want to consider renting a car to take on the road with you instead. Since car rental companies are in the business of renting cars, they make sure to keep their cars well maintained.

Another great thing about renting a car for a road trip is that you save your vehicle from wear and tear and added mileage. You may just save money by renting a car too, especially if you have a non-fuel efficient car. Many car rental companies today rent out hybrids and fuel efficient cars.

Most of all, you will have peace of mind knowing that you are traveling in a safe and secure car. If anything should happen mechanically to the car while you are in the road, the car rental company typically handles the issues right away.

Know Where You Are Going

Whether you are driving 300 miles away or 3000 miles away, you always want to map out your trip ahead of time. This gets you familiar with where you need to go and gives you time to plan any alternate route if needed (traffic, road construction, etc.). There are tons of free online mapping services available for you to use such as Google Maps or MapQuest.

If you are fortunate enough to have GPS in your car or on your mobile phone, take advantage of it for your trip. If you are renting a car, ask the rental car company if they offer GPS devices for their rentals. Most major car rental companies offer GPS rentals for a nominal fee.

Have Fun

Make your holiday road trip fun for you and your family by packing travel games, movies, and music that everyone can sing along to on the road. Point out exciting landmarks and sights that you see while traveling the roadways. Sure, holiday traveling can get a little tiring at times, but if you play it safe and enjoy yourselves, a holiday road trip can be a wonderful experience for the family.

Teenage dating violence is a problem here in our country. Statistics show that 1 in every 3 teenagers has been affected by teen violence in one way or another. This type of violence can happen to any teen, regardless of their race, economic, or social status. Although both teenage boys and girls can be affected by teen dating violence, teenage girls are often more susceptible to this kind of violence.

If you are a parent of a teen that is dating or may start dating soon, it is important to have a discussion with your teen about dating and the violence they could run into when dating the wrong partner.

Here is some important information that you can pass along to your teen to help with your discussion:

Dating Tips

If you do not know the person you are dating well, consider going out on a double date or group date for your first date. Once you get to know this person and feel more comfortable with them, dating one-on-one will feel less stressful.

Should you decide to go on your first date alone, make sure your date includes going out somewhere public. It could be the movies, out to dinner, or to a concert or show. Never agree to go out on a first date just to hang out at your date’s house.

Make sure to let your parents know where you are at, where you are going, and when they can expect you to come home. Since payphones are hard to find these days, make sure you bring a cell phone with you on your date. You will need it should anything go wrong and you need to call your parents, other family, or friends for help.

If you feel uncomfortable with your date at any time or your date makes inappropriate sexual advances towards you, end the date immediately. Never feel obligated to give into these advances and always know that you have the right to say no!

Dealing with Dating Violence

Sometimes a first date can go great. The second, third, and fourth may go well too. There may never be signs of any violence until later on in the dating relationship. But once the violence starts to take place, you’ll know immediately that things are not right.

Common warning signs that could turn into dating violence and abuse are:

• Extreme Jealousy
• Controlling Behavior
• Explosive Anger
• Mood Swings
• Isolates You from Family and Friends
• Verbal Abuse
• Uses Threats of Harm Against You or Your Family

These are just some of the warning signs. There are so many more to look out for. If you see any of these signs, do not wait! The violence will continue and will only get worse over time. Talk to your parents or trusted adults about what you are going through, and get help so that you can get out of that relationship and keep yourself safe.

Dating should be fun and exciting, not full of anger, fear, and hurt. If you practice these teen dating tips and know how to recognize the early signs of an abusive relationship, you are already one step ahead of the game. You will go into the dating world feeling more secure and confident about your choices.