Kidnapped!

(The alleged kidnapping of a couple of boys in Missouri has prompted me to take a “Time-Out” from my series of article on sending messages of love to children to offer some help to parents who are now fearing for the safety of their children. The number of requests says to me that I should address the concerns of the parents who have written simply because each one who writes undoubtedly represents thousand more with similar questions.)

Over the past few days I have received a good number of inquiries from alarmed parents due to the recovery of two boys from Missouri who had been kidnapped. Almost every parent who has written to me has had almost the same question… “How can we prevent our children from being kidnapped?”

Well, that is a great question… and I will attempt to give some concrete steps that can be taken in order to protect your children from a similar catastrophe.

1. The first step that you can take to protect your children from being kidnapped would be to live in the United States of America! Please do not start laughing or stop reading and stick with me here because I am not joking. While the United States does have a pretty high crime rate, crimes against children are actually very rare in America. In an average year there are usually less than a hundred children kidnapped by strangers in the United States! The chances are probably greater of your children being bitten by a poisonous snake and dying than they are of them being kidnapped by a stranger! Living in America would be one of the best ways to prevent having your children kidnapped because kidnapping is really, very rare here.
2. In addition to the low number of children kidnapped in the U.S., it is interesting to note that the vast majority of kidnappings here are committed by people who are related to the children. Most of the time the kidnappers are estranged parents who have lost custody battle and kidnap their own kids! So the second way that you can prevent your children from being kidnapped is to maintain a stable marriage.

(Please check back tomorrow for some tips for protecting your children from being kidnapped by strangers!)