My seven-year-old takes karate. Makes him feel invincible.
Him: “Don’t worry. If a bad guy comes, I know karate.”
Me: “I still want you where I can see you.”
Him: “Don’t worry. I know karate.”
Me: “What if three bad guys come?”
Him: “That’s ok. I can do my ‘tornado kick.'”
I think when kids hear about ‘bad guys,’ they assume they would be forcefully attacked or abducted. Thrown into the backseat of a car. Or they’d be able to scream in time for someone to come to their aid.
I do not own the rights to broadcast the following video and I excerpted 0:38 seconds for illustrative purposes only. In Dexter Season 4, John Lithgow plays a serial killer. Look how easy it was to fool the 10-year-old at the arcade.
Untitled from Joe Hage on Vimeo.
How do you protect against a well-conceived con? I don’t think deviously enough to plant these possibilities into my kids’ heads. Not to mention the nightmares.
The guy who conned me
I was 14, I think, at the time. And looking back, the con was ridiculous. I should have known better.
But here was an adult telling me about an emergency situation! I wanted to cooperate and be helpful.
Luckily, I was only robbed.
He stopped me on my bike. He told me, “A woman was shot (I think it was) and they described the perpetrator as [my-height, my-clothes, on a brown bike].
He told me to run up to the fifth floor of this building. I said, “Wait. Let me lock up my bike first.”
He said, “No! There’s no time for that.”
There were only four floors to that building, I discovered, as my bike went off into the distance.
Stupid. Stupid!
How can we protect our children from cons?
I don’t think a simple “Never listen to strangers” is enough.
:: Joe Hage is the CEO and Founder of Medical Marcom, a medical marketing consultancy providing effective lead generation strategies for life science companies. http://MedicalMarcom.com ::
Speak Your Mind