Saturday, November 1, 2008

I'm Thankful!!!

I am so thankful we send our children to Catholic school! Both at St. Joseph Elementary in Michigan and at Nativity Catholic School here, they have received instruction designed to protect them. In the Diocese of Kalamazoo, it was called Protecting All God's Children. Here, in the Diocese of St. Petersburg, it's called Safe Environment Training. The programs are virtually identical and are absolutely marvelous.

I know this up close and personal. Last night, they paid off in a huge way! My husband was taking his turn escorting our two kids trick-or-treating and, apparently, he wasn't in view of the people at the door of one house. The man who answered the door tried to convince our kids to go inside his house. Without hesitating, our kids said, "No, thank you." He tried again and said he wanted to take their picture. My son just said, "No, my dad wouldn't like it if we went in your house but you can take a picture of us out here." Now, maybe the man's intentions were innocent and nothing would have happened but, one never knows.

I am so proud of our kids that they remembered what to do. Even more so, I am grateful they have been trained to do this at their school. Wouldn't we have done that ourselves? Probably, but attending the training session for parents had reminded us of details or situations we might not have considered. Plus, they got the message from us at home and from the staff at the school. That double coverage certainly made a difference for our family last night.

I'll never complain about the cost of tuition again!

1 comment:

AuBien said...

Ileana,
I just amazes me that people would even CONSIDER inviting a child inside their home these days if a parent has not already given permission. Even if it's all in kindness and fun - HELLO??!! I realize I am overly protective and overly cautious...but this just seems completely foolish. I'm glad your children were prepared and it also sounds like they handled it completely respectfully! It stinks that our children have to grow up being so cautious of adults who might hurt them instead of being able to expect adults to always be looking out for their best interests! Shae