Today, for whatever reason (maybe the "stir crazy-itis" I mentioned in my last blog), my daughter decided to open the door to a complete and utter stranger. She says she thought it was her dad (who had been outside taking care of the trash earlier). Nonetheless, a hard and fast rule here at Casa Stro is that you Never.Ever.Open.The.Door.To.Strangers. In fact, we're so hardline, even if someone the kids do know comes to the door, they need to come and get one of us to answer the door!

Thankfully the guy was just a canvasser for the election next week - so it would appear. But, who really ever knows? Folks do "case the joint" before doing something dastardly! So, the whole episode really freaked the kids (and their parents!) out.

The dilemma is how to talk to kids about "Stranger Danger" without upsetting them? Sadly, the dangers in our society are all too real. We can couch it in "age appropriate language" but we still need to address the issue with our children.

Though we reiterated the rules immediately after the incident, we waited several hours until dinnertime to re-open the topic. This gave everyone time to have the initial message sink in, and for fears to subside.

We chose a neutral time and place to re-hash the incident. Additionally, we didn't want emotions or adrenaline involved in the discussion. Sometimes, because the issue is so near to us, it's hard to be objective and we can't have a rational discussion of whatever the "thing" is. Thus, we chose to talk about the incident at a time when everyone was calm and the associations (food!) were good.

We talked about how much we love our children, and because of that love, we want to keep them safe. So once again, we went over the rules for the door.

Have you encountered this? What are your strategies for discussing "Stranger Danger" with children who have experienced trauma?

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