Does your family have one?

[Gorilla_Mama]

No, but I had one when I was a kid. At my kids school the older kids who ride the bus exit on one side and the older kids who don’t exit on the other. My kids ride the bus so there’s no reason for parents to be back there and someone would notice a weirdo being out of place.

At the elementary even at after school pick up you have to walk in and get them from a classroom, if they don’t recognize you as a parent they ask for ID.

[sarah824]

No, but I had one when I was a kid. At my kids school the older kids who ride the bus exit on one side and the older kids who don’t exit on the other. My kids ride the bus so there’s no reason for parents to be back there and someone would notice a weirdo being out of place.

At the elementary even at after school pick up you have to walk in and get them from a classroom, if they don’t recognize you as a parent they ask for ID.

It is my understanding that this child was walking home from school when the stranger approached him and told him that dad wanted him to pick the boy up. Definitely a scary situation and could have been very bad.

[Guest]

Yes. It's "orange."

[lunarprancer]

A family "code word" that is? A word that your kids know in case someone tries to kidnap them?

There was a story on the local news last night about a boy who was leaving his elementary school and was approached by an unknown man. The man told the boy that his dad told him to pick him up. The boy asked for the password and when they man didn't know what it was the boy ran back to school and told school officials who contacted police. They did not find the man, but it definitely kept the boy from being kidnapped.

We do not, and never have, had such a system in place and now that our kids are older and have cell phones we would simply text or call the kids and let them know that someone is picking them up. But it made me wonder if others have this kind of system in place.

Kinda....We have a code word for when Mil shows up at the front door. When we say the word they know to go upstairs and lock the bedroom door.

But other than that no although this idea was encouraged during the stranger danger era in the 80s

[guest]

A family "code word" that is? A word that your kids know in case someone tries to kidnap them?

There was a story on the local news last night about a boy who was leaving his elementary school and was approached by an unknown man. The man told the boy that his dad told him to pick him up. The boy asked for the password and when they man didn't know what it was the boy ran back to school and told school officials who contacted police. They did not find the man, but it definitely kept the boy from being kidnapped.

We do not, and never have, had such a system in place and now that our kids are older and have cell phones we would simply text or call the kids and let them know that someone is picking them up. But it made me wonder if others have this kind of system in place.

Kinda....We have a code word for when Mil shows up at the front door. When we say the word they know to go upstairs and lock the bedroom door.

But other than that no although this idea was encouraged during the stranger danger era in the 80s

Strangers arent the only danger to our children

[Poietes]

No, but I’ve told my kids I will never ever send someone for them that they don’t know. Period. There would be no reason. There are to many others they do know that we would send first.

[Pjmm]

No I've always told the kids if someone else is to pick you up 1. it would be someone you know and 2. I'd call the school and let them know someone else is coming for you.

I get what you are saying, but calling the school in this situation wouldn't have helped because the boy had already left school and was walking home. Claimed to be a friend or something and that dad told him to come get the boy... Definitely a scary situation.

That falls under the heading of "I'll only send you people you know. Family. Friends you know very well. If you don't know them don't go with them."

[Mammagoose]

Not for that but we do have a word for when anyone in our family feels unsafe. If my kids hear that word they know they better listen and do what they are told immediately.
That started after we were walking from a hotel next door to the store and a homeless man started staring yelling to someone across the street (who I couldn't see so I'm not sure if they were even real) "this one, take this one," and pointing to my dd. I immediately grabbed dds hand but she didn't want to hold my hand and started fighting me. She hadn't noticed the man or recognized the danger.
Our code word let's me inform them that they need to listen because theres danger near. Ds has used it once when he noticed a man watching them at the park kind of lurking in the trees. It sure beats saying hey we aren't safe right now for whoever is making us feel that way to hear.

[Traci_Momof2]

No. We just always taught the kids to NEVER get in a vehicle with someone unless they heard it directly from us first. Even neighbors that we generally trusted and seemed nice enough, we said don't get in a car with them unless we say it's ok first.
We supported that by always being personally responsible for picking up the kids unless we pre-arranged in advance. We never sent someone else at the last minute. So if someone said to them "Your mom sent me to pick you up" it would be very unusual and would cause them to pause and think first.
And I think that's one of the benefits of having two parents fully in the children's lives because if one of us was going to go pick up a kid, and then had a flat tire or something, we would call the other who would drop everything to go get the child. That way it would always be a parent, not a neighbor or friend or anything like that. That way the kid doesn't have to second guess. He knows a parent is coming.

[RedBottoms]

we don't have a codeword but my kids know who they are allowed to go with and who they are not allowed to go with.