Making Your Car Safe for Children

Inspect your car, both inside and out on a weekly basis.  Follow all routine maintenance schedules for your car as advised by the manufacturer, including oil changes, and tire rotations.  Keep your state vehicle inspection up-to-date.  Check the tread on your tires and also check the tire pressure regularly.  Look for puddles under the car that may be indicators of serious problems.  A puddle of water from the A/C is normal, but a puddle of oil or transmission fluid is not. While you are spending some quality time with your car, go ahead and wash it and clean all of the windows to provide maximum visibility.

What's in your front seat?

Remove or secure loose objects in the car.  In the event of a wreck or roll-over, loose objects will become projectiles and can seriously injure you and your children.  This includes toys, tools, mp3 players, and anything that would hurt if thrown at your face with force.  All of these things can either be stored in the glove box or in the trunk.

Have your car checked immediately if it begins to handle differently or make any strange noises.  Extreme heat and cold are hazardous conditions for young children.  Always crank your car several minutes prior to letting your children get in and let the temperature adjust to a comfortable level.  Check all metal belt buckles and wait until they are cool to the touch before allowing your children to come in contact with them.  Do not, under any circumstances, leave your child unattended in the car for any length of time!

Buy a new car seat or booster seat from a retail store.  It’s perfectly acceptable to buy second-hand clothes and toys for your child from a consignment sale, but car seats are constantly being recalled for safety issues.  You don’t have to buy the most expensive seat available, but if you buy a used one, you have no information about the history of the seat or whether it has been involved in a crash.  Read the instructions for the new seat and install it to the best of your ability.  Then, before placing your child in the seat, drive to the nearest fire station and ask if one of their “car seat certified installers” will give your seat a proper inspection.  Keep all instruction manuals that came with the seat and check periodically for recall notices from the manufacturer.  Many manufacturers will now let you register the seat and they will send an email alert to you if a recall is issued.

Talk to your children about being safe while riding in and exiting the car.  Don’t allow fighting or yelling or anything that is distracting to the driver of the vehicle.  Buckle your children’s safety belts or harnesses the moment they get into the car and do not let them unbuckle themselves until they are exiting the car.  This may sound extreme, but there is a possibility that another car could impact your car, even while you are parked, and if your children are not buckled, they could sustain bad injuries.  If you parallel park your car, tell your children to stay in the car and then let them exit on the side opposite the street.  Do not allow children to run around in parking lots or parking garages!

Practice safe driving habits and make good choices.  Always drive at or under the speed limit and constantly check your mirrors.  If you identify a bad driver approaching you, do everything that you can to allow them to pass you and go on their way.  Avoid causing or participating in road rage.  Don’t speed up to try and make it through yellow traffic lights.  Always leave early enough to make it to your destination on-time without driving fast.  If you are going to be late, then just be late.  If you cause an accident and hurt your children because you were in too much of a hurry, you will look back and wish you had just taken your time, so always think proactively in order to avoid all of that.  If you will be driving with your children in the car at any point in a given evening, don’t drink alcohol at all!

Evaluate the cars of anyone else who will transport your child.  Give them a safety checklist and see that they follow it.  As a parent, it is your responsibility to keep your children safe, regardless of other people’s opinions or bad habits.  If someone else’s vehicle or driving habits are unsafe for your children, do not let them ride with that person, regardless of what they say or whether it hurts their feelings.  If this person loves and respects your children, they will make the effort to keep them safe too.

Protecting Older People from Scams

I was taught to always respect my elders, but unfortunately, there are people in this world who do not feel the same way. Do you know if your older friends and family members are safe from becoming the victims of scams?

In order to help an older person protect themselves from fraud and scams, they first have to trust you and be willing to cooperate with the advice that you give them. If someone is reluctant to comply, do not let it upset you and do not become angry with them. Tell them that you are just trying to look out for their best interest. Some people are independent and are offended when other people try to offer them help. Respect their wishes.

If they do trust you and they do want your help, the first place to start is in their home. There are four areas of concern that many people leave vulnerable; their mail, their phone, their computer, and the doors to their home. Each area maintains the potential for scammers to gain entry and wreak havoc.

To make a person’s mail more secure, purchase a mailbox with a locking mechanism and key so that the mail delivered to them is safe and cannot be removed by anyone else. Check with their local post office and see how close to the person’s house the mailbox can be mounted. The further away from the street the box is, the safer the mail will be and it makes for a shorter walk. If possible, the person should drive outgoing mail to a mail drop box to send it, but if this is not possible, be sure they write any checks in permanent ink that cannot be washed from the check. Also they should not put outgoing mail into the mailbox until close to time for the mail carrier to pick it up. Online bill payment is a preferred method for the elderly to pay their bills if they have Internet access.

For telephones, Caller ID is an important feature to help someone know who is calling. They can use this feature to avoid irritating sales people and scammers. Visit the website for the “Do Not Call Registry” and add their number. A mobile phone may actually be a good alternative to a land-line phone for the older crowd because it can be placed in their pocket and taken wherever they go. If the person is hearing impaired, the vibrate feature of the mobile phone can help them to know when someone is calling. Also, they can use text messages to communicate if they are unable to speak. Mobile phones typically include Caller ID and the phone number is usually harder for scammers to acquire. If they do invest in a mobile phone or if you buy one for them, instruct them not to give the number to anyone. Another good rule of thumb is to have the attitude that “If I didn’t call someone, then I probably don’t want what they have to offer.” Be sure that the person you are assisting knows to never give personal information to someone over-the-phone unless they are sure that person is legitimate.

If the older person owns a computer with Internet Access, there are several precautions to take. They should have a good antivirus package as well as a firewall, email spam program, and a phishing filter for websites. Many of these tools are included with certain operating systems. Verify that they are equipped and functioning. Have a training session with the older person and discuss with them the techniques that scammers use to try to get information from people. Show them a few example emails and be sure they are able to identify threats for themselves. If they cannot, ask that they forward suspicious emails or websites to you.

Secure all entryways into the home with deadbolt locks and either a peephole or a security camera so that the occupant will always know who is knocking at their door. When strangers come to the door, instruct the person to ignore them unless they know them. No matter what the visitor says, tell them not to be intimidated and to call the police if the person persists. Securing all entrances will help them to avoid pushy salespeople who have no business bothering the elderly to begin with.

One last idea is to install a set of photoelectric sensors across the person’s driveway and connect the output to a buzzer or bell inside the home. This will let the person know they have a visitor well in advance of the person standing at their door and give the older person time to prepare.

Building a Kid-friendly Computer

Do you worry about your children using your computer? What trouble can they get into on the Internet? What harm could they do to your important data? Why not build them a computer of their own?

Build your children a computer using some inexpensive parts that you buy online or recycle an older computer. The child’s computer doesn’t have to be very powerful or loaded with memory. Just build something functional that they can call their own. If the hard drive is used, format it in order to wipe it completely clean. Install an operating system that you are familiar with. For this example, we will use Windows XP. Once the operating system is installed, remove all applications that your child doesn’t need. This should free up quite a bit of space and remove a lot of distracting icons. Install some fun children’s learning games and create shortcuts for them on the desktop.

Customize the computer to match your child’s tastes. Apply cool stickers to the computer case or even paint it a wild color. Adjust the screen resolution so that the text and icons are larger and easy to see. Change the background on the desktop to a colorful splash with some familiar cartoon characters that your children will recognize. Once you have everything set the way you like it, create a store point using System Restore. This is found by clicking the “START” button and going to All Programs>Accessories>System Tools>System Restore. Chose the option for creating a restore point and name the restore point description something easy to identify, like the current date. Now, if your child changes a critical setting by accident, you can restore the computer to perfect working order.

Take control of your child’s online experience. Buy a router and configure it with policies that restrict the times that they can access the Internet. For even more control, purchase Internet monitoring software that will block websites based on your criteria. Use Windows Remote Assistance software or one of many available remote access programs to monitor your children’s activities if they are located in another room or if their monitor isn’t visible to you. You can also configure your router to save a log file of the pages they visit that they cannot delete unless they have access to the router.

Password-protect your own computer and leave it logged off when you are away from it to encourage your children to use their own computer. Check the permissions on your computer and turn off sharing to the root of your hard drive. You will not have to worry about them accidentally deleting your files or infecting your computer with any malicious viruses. Let them have all the fun they want with their computer and if they mess it up, just reformat it and start all over.