The Ultimate Guide To Personal Safety For Women And Children

Personal safety has always been a priority for women and children around the world. And while you can kit out your home with the best smart home security system and heighten security around your property, you won’t be able to spend every minute safe within your fortress. The same is true for your children; you will need to enhance personal safety to keep them safe when leaving home. 

While there is a nearly endless list of reasons to learn basic self-defense and teach your children the same, you will also need to arm yourself with defense devices while knowing exactly how to use them properly. To help you get started, this ultimate personal safety guide for women and children covers both the best self-defense devices for women and children while also pointing out the most effective self-defense techniques.

Compact Potent Pepper Spray

Oc spray, or pepper spray, is one of the most popular self-defense devices on the market. The formula inside the can is potent enough to disable an attacker by targeting their vision while also causing immediate pain. However, pepper spray is not potent enough to be fatal. Therefore, you will be able to protect yourself and your children without fatally harming anyone. 

It is recommended to learn how to use pepper spray correctly while also opting for a compact device to keep in your pocket, your handbag, or on your keychain. It is also best to investigate the trigger action on the pepper spray device before purchasing as some have safety features that can make easy access a bit tricky. Depending on your children’s age, you can also let them keep a can of pepper spray on them when leaving the house. However, you will need to stress the importance of only using the device in an emergency.

Stun Guns

Stun guns are another popular self-defense device that can ultimately save your life in an unfortunate event. This device is not suitable for children, so you should keep it out of reach at all times. The effects of a stun gun can be fatal, so you should also check the relevant laws in your region before investing in one. What’s more, you will also need to learn how to use this device in defense as your intention should be to disable an attacker to buy yourself enough time to get away from the situation.

Grab Back And Drop Your Body

Although grabbing your attacker’s back may seem a bit counteractive, it is an effective self-defense technique that even children can learn. The key is to hold both your attackers’ arms with your two arms as they grab you and follow by dropping your body to the ground with as much force as possible. Essentially, you will be using your attacker’s weight against them, so this technique is effective even if your attacker is much larger. 

Know Where To Run When You Breakaway

Panic can make a person rush off blindly in an unknown direction, which could mean you end up in an abandoned parking lot with your attacker close behind. Once you manage to break away from your attacker, the most crucial step is to know where to run to. It is best to run towards build-up areas or crowds as this will deter your attacker. It is essential to teach your children this step; staying calm in an emergency can be challenging, although, with enough practice, even children can develop the habit of making rational decisions in the face of danger.

Practice All The Basic Techniques

There are tons of self-defense techniques out there that have saved lives. However, these techniques won’t help much if you don’t know how to properly perform them. Instead of only reading up on these techniques, you should practice them with your children to perfect the technique, just as you would practice your little one’s baseball swing with them until they grasp the concept. You can practice at least three techniques once each week while also educating your children on why they need to know these moves and when to use them.

Sign Up For Martial Arts That Focus On Self-Defense

While most martial arts forms focus on self-defense, jiu-jitsu specifically teaches us how to use our opponent’s weight against them. This fact makes the practice perfect for women and children who need to learn how to protect themselves despite the intimidating size of an attacker. You can sign up for these classes weekly and encourage your children to join in, learning self-defense in a way that will build confidence while also proving quite fun. Your children will be able to partake in the jiu-jitsu practice as a hobby or a competitive sport that offers trophies and levels. What’s more, they will also learn vital discipline skills that can extend to improve their lives in various ways.

Teach Your Children How To Identify Danger

Children are innocent, and while this is one of their purest traits, this often leaves them vulnerable to dangerous situations. Therefore, one of the best ways to arm your children with the tools they need to defend themselves is to teach them how to identify danger. This knowledge will serve them well as they will be able to avoid dangerous encounters best. You can train your children how to identify a suspicious individual, why they should never communicate with strangers, and how to alert nearby adults if they are in harm’s way. Being safety conscious is the best defense against harm, and even though you don’t want your children to live in fear, you should teach them specifics that render a person or place potentially dangerous.

Learning self-defense and how to adopt a safety-conscious way of thinking will not happen overnight. Therefore, you and your children will need to persist in your journey towards identifying danger and acting accordingly in life-threatening situations. We all know just how much of an impact the “save our children” movement had on us as parents. Even though the campaign did not gain enough traction or awareness to lessen the severe problem, parents now need to take matters into their own hands to keep themselves and their children safe from harm’s way.