It’s a Safety Concern

Being a woman I know the need to always be on your guard. Whether online or outside, I need to be aware of my surroundings and who could be a potential threat.

I have even had experiences where I was glad I was on my guard. Being yelled at on the street and having someone slowly walk over to me (I assumed this person wanted money and I was not sure their state of mind) where I just quickly walked to work. Another time where I had a fellow (a complete stranger) come to my door and asked to use my washroom. I wisely gave him another alternative.

Those situations were not online.

But we all know online we need to keep our guard up, especially women and underage kids. There are so many people out there who will take advantage of us…or worse.

The thing we have to do is to be wise about it and to train up our kids to be wise as well in those situations. We roll our eyes or shake our heads at those who are not wise in those situations. We may possibly reprimand them or give them solutions of how to proceed with a similar situation in the future. Sadly that has to be the solution as we cannot expect perpetrators to change.

I do recommend the above.

I also do know sometimes (some) guys do not get the whole threat out there. They may be aware of some threats, but others they may think I/we am being overly cautious. I see where they are coming from. In some ways I do believe guys may be a little blinded to the fact as they would never have to experience those situations. However I know there has been a time or two where I bypassed a real need in an effort to be on my guard. For example, I had a cop come into work to give us some self-defence tips. He suggested to never hand anyone money when asked because as soon as you start digging in your purse for change, you are an easy target for someone to take down. I remembered that. So when I was shopping one time and someone asked for a specific $0.35 I reacted with “nope”, not realizing until afterwards it was a boy who needed exact change for a phone call. Yes I was on my guard for safety’s sake, but sometimes I need to be aware of who is actually asking.

So yes I try to be wise by not walking alone at night, walk around situations where I do not feel safe, having strict settings on my social media accounts, only giving out certain information when appropriate and taking advice of other safety tips I have received. However amongst all that I also am striving to be aware of the situations for need too. It does take extra work, but I do not think either situation should be dismissed.