Reply to Safety device for teen/college student?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I would talk to her about not walking alone at night (at least until she has lived on campus for a few months and knows the area) and about alcohol safety (ie, don't leave friends behind, keep your drink in your possession, limit drinking). You want her to stay out of iffy situations, not deploy mace.[/quote]

New poster.

This, above, times 1000, OP!

The BEST thing you can do before she leaves (or more likely, you'll have to schedule it for her winter break, because time is short now) - is to give her the gift of a good self-defense workshop that has a strong emphasis on [b]situational awareness and techniques for getting out of a situation and getting AWAY[/b]. Not a "martial arts" quickie seminar, but a women's self-defense workshop. There are some single-day workshops in the area but you need to look around.

My DD's Girl Scout troop did a self-defense workshop as seniors. It was something the other leader and I really wanted for them. There absolutely were physical techniques taught and practiced, and discussion of using whatever was at hand as a weapon, but that is all last resort. As the PP above notes: learning how to "stay out of iffy situations" in the first place is key. That's situational awareness, and I think most teens just don't have much situational awareness and many girls are still socialized to be polite, "think the best of others," "don't make assumptions that someone who's walking near you is following you" etc.

PP is also right about having a realistic talk about how alcohol makes girls and women FAR more vulnerable, and how they should not walk alone.

Most of all: The instuctor for my DD's self-defense workshop emphasized that pepper sprays, knives, etc. were all things that [i]could very easily be used against the person trying to use them [/i]on an attacker. Imagine grabbing your keychain canister of pepper spray and in your fear and rush, you don't realize the spray is aimed at you, not outward. Or the attacker grabs you and sprays you with it. The instructor said he advises never carrying that stuff, but knowing techniques, and most of all knowing where and how to get away, and following your gut if you feel fear. That last one is tough for a lot of girls who tend to think, "I'm overreacting and I don't want to assume that person means me harm" etc.

I'll try to find the name of the company that did our workshop and I'll come back and post if I can. It was two years ago so not sure I still have the info, but will return if I do. [/quote]

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