Physical safety. Emotional safety. Relational Safety.

This week is all about safety in the FHH Summer Book Club! Does this mean we are going to be talking about wearing helmets or keeping parental controls on your devices? Nope! While these are all great things, they are not the only considerations when it comes to safety. There are three different areas of safety our brains are constantly scanning for. (While I have a flair for the dramatics….just ask my mother….I'm not joking when I say constantly. Our brains assess for safety every second of every day). Physical safety. Emotional safety. Relational safety. These are the three areas important to our children. We put a profound emphasis on physical safety, which makes sense. It's extremely important and easy to talk about. Emotional safety and relational safety are more difficult to quantify, and therefore get ignored.

This week's chapter looks at how to protect our children without being overly protective. Here's a quick overview of the strategies we will see in the book:

Strategy #1: First, do no harm: Commit that you won't be a source of fear in your home. Fear based parenting is NOT the answer. Does it sometimes make quick changes? Yes. But, it will create a wedge between you and your child, and the only thing your child will learn is to avoid danger.

Strategy #2: Repair, repair, repair! When there's a rupture in the relationship between you and your child, reconnect as soon as possible and apologize if necessary. At FHH, our goal is that your relationship is stronger after the argument than it was before!

Strategy #3: Help your kids feel snug in a safe harbor. Make your home an environment of safety and well-being your child knows is there when they need to feel safe.

On social media this week, we will have resources specific to strategies 2 and 3, so don't miss out!