Explaining Drugs

If your son is worried about his allergies to peanuts/eggs, then that's a good thing. He's aware of what he can and can't have. It's a good building block. Another good building block is "stranger danger". I had my youngest watch the Safe Side video by John Walsh and the creators of the Baby Einstein videos. She loved it, and it was very educational. You could build from that basic structure of how people you don't know are "strangers" and so on.....the same rule applies to "taking" things from people you don't know well. Even if it's a kid, sometimes kids take grown-up things without even knowing it's not safe. That's a very slippery slope...the whole kids and safety. Good luck!

It's never to young to inform your children of the potential dangers in this world. We always see things on TV and think "that couldn't happen to us". I taught my daughters especially early on to NEVER let any type of "drink" be it in a cup or a can out of their sight. If they are tapped on the shoulder by someone, the rule of thumb is to turn with your drink in front of you. Just keep reminding him of the dangers of taking something from others and remember he's only 6. It'll sink in :)

I think it would just better to talk to him about drugs. I really don't think it is going to be very effective to tell him not to take candy or gum when offered. That is a normal thing to do as a friend when eating gum or candy in front of your friend.

The others are right, talk to him. At this age, it's okay to explain a little bit about WHY you don't want him to take things from others. We had this conversation with our 5yo over Halloween candy, not accepting anything home-made (except from people we know) or unwrapped. We explained that not everyone is nice, that there are some mean people who try to hurt kids and they might put something bad (we didn't have to get into a conversation about drugs specifically) in the candy so it's just a good idea to have mom and dad check the candy out first, just to be safe. We assure her it's PROBABLY fine, but we still need to check. And, if mom and dad have to check things out first, she can't take anything, even apart from Halloween) without us there to check it! :)

N.,

Well, the allergies alone are enough to have a hard and fast rule not to accept food items from other people!

He's old enough for you to say that sometimes people give you food that has bad things in it that can make you very, very sick. Even if they say it's okay, that it's good and it won't hurt you, they might not know if it has something in it that will hurt you, so NEVER take food from anyone unless I say it's okay-like your teacher or aunt so and so. Never, ever, never, ever from another kid, big or little or a stranger.

At his age, the simpler the explanation, the better. His response is actually a pretty good one. I would be concerned too about allergies. My (almost) 2yo daughter is allergic to chocolate. I wouldn't want other children offering her candy either unless I was there to see exactly what it was. Maybe at this point, you could just stick to that? Or, just explaining to him that it's not safe to accept candy/gum from anyone unless it's a family member or you are there to give permission. Hope that helps.