How can I ensure my kids are always safe?

Have a family chat at least 2 times a week. It is good to know you are worried about your child and I like to keep updated.

It is impossible to assure your kids are always safe. We are not God, after all. Of course, every responsible parent will take measures to ensure safety. This includes things like car seats, seat belts, bicycle helmets, and teaching them stranger safety. But there are always freak accidents. There are always wicked people with evil motives. There will always be incurable diseases. Such is life for both children and adults. It is one of the difficult things about being a parent. There will come a day when you will know, not just intellectually, but practically, the truth. Beyond the types of things mentioned, I, for one, pray for my children's safety on a regular basis. Even so, that doesn't mean that there aren't times that I fret and worry. The enormity of things that can go wrong can be overwhelming at times. Try not to focus on this, beyond that which will cause you to take necessary precautions. To overprotect, in my opinion, can, in the long run, actually cripple a child's ability to protect himself and mature properly. It is a tight rope between over and under protection, and no parent does it perfectly.

The sad truth is that you can't, you can however learn your kids to look after themselves. Its important for children to know how to handle certain situations in life because no matter how hard you try you can't always be there for them.

You can do the best you can but, life is very unpredictable, Try not to blame yourself if anything goes wrong.

Make sure they know how much you love them. This way they will understand that everything you tell them is in love and care. Give them freedom like a mobile, but the security to know how to use it should anything go wrong. Teach them about safety like walking home with a friend and not alone, and not to use paths or shortcuts in the dark.

You can take precautionary measures and advice from different sources: the local police, school, local doctor/nurse, online. But you can also teach your child a few things about how to be aware of their surroundings and trust their gut.

Contact them. I know many kids dislike when parents call them back to back checking up on them to see if they are safe. But an option you can do is tell them to call you when they get to a location and after a few hours its okay to check up on them to ask if they are okay. You can also tell them to call you when they are coming home so you know they are okay once they arrive and leave.

There is no 100% way to ensure that your kids will always be safe but depending on their age just make sure if they are old enough and they go out that they always have their cellphones on them. If they are younger and go to school you should be able to trust the teachers there that your kid will be safe at all times, It is their job to keep your kids safe during the school time and to teach them. Teenagers are a different story. They like to do what they want most of the time and enjoy the thrill of being dangerous but if you sit down and talk about the possible consequences with him or her they will most always understand, now there will be certain times when he or she wont care and sometimes you just have to wait for them to do something and then use those consequences.

Teach them the best you can and hope they remember your voice when questioning decisions. Kids are going to screw up and get hurt and it has to be okay, it has to be treated as a learning experience. There's no possible way to protect them from everything, but you can do your best to impart your knowledge about things you learned the hard way, and hope they don't make the same mistakes :)

You can do as much as you can to provide the advice and the protection that you can give. But always remember that trust and space should also be given to your kids to allow them to trust you. You don't want them to feel too overwhelmed with what you are doing to protect them.