Halloween Safety Tips for Keeping Your Kids and Home Safe on the Fall Holiday
BY ANDY KAY
Every year October rolls around and parents try to juggle everything from costumes to house decorations and can easily get distracted from awareness of putting safety first. As a private investigator, I get asked by parents all the time what kind of advice I have for making sure their safety checklist is complete.
Here are some tips to help you navigate the scary parts of the holiday (because ghosts and jack-o-lanterns should be fun!):
- Wear lights and/or reflective gear! For kids, light up tennis shoes, and (mini) flashlights to see where they are walking, and light up accessories are always important when trick or treating.
2. Costume flammability is an issue. A lot of people use candles and real flames to decorate for Halloween. Some costumes have highly flammable material and can easily catch on fire. So double-check the flammability on your kids’ costumes (by CHECKING THE TAGS).
3. Make sure children’s costume masks don’t obstruct their vision, especially their peripheral vision. This goes for adults, too. Make sure that you have good visibility in whatever costume or mask is being worn. Being on the lookout for cars, bikes, motorcycles, and obstructions in the walkway during the evening hours is a necessary basic.
4. Wearable device tracking technology for kids is something we push to parents. Watches, children’s phones (with only programed dial-out numbers) that have location-enabled settings, and other trackers are great. Finding a kid who ran into a few friends and got side-tracked is not so stressful when they are wearing tracking technology.
5. Check the area your kids will be trick-or-treating on the sex offender’s map. It’s a good idea to know if there are registered sex offenders where you will be going so that you can avoid their houses. I know it sounds basic, but a lot of people have bad experiences because of simple, basic things they didn’t do.
6. While you are out trick-or-treating, your house could be at risk for opportunistic intruders. So take precautions to protect your home with security technology. Motion-detection cameras that are connected to your phone are a great option.
7. Keep your pets inside and away from the front door. This avoids any possible situations where your pet could become startled and or nip/bite someone they deem a threat or intruder. Your pets don’t know that it’s Halloween and that the angry looking creature at the door is merely a child in costume; they simply are guarding their owner and home. Also, keeping your pet inside ensures so that no naughty kids will play a prank on your pet is what we recommend. These sorts of seemingly harmless pranks can easily harm the kids or your pet, and always cause an upset to your pet. Take a simple action to avoid any such unfortunate incidents.
Have a fun, safe, and happy Halloween! And if you find yourself needing help with any sort of investigation, don’t hesitate to call us at Kay & Associates Investigations. We have the best private investigations team in the business for 28 years and counting!
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Contact Kay & Associates Investigations
email: info@kayandassociates.com
call: 424.284.8262
