As the father of a 2-year-old, my days are consumed in part by thinking about and facilitating the care and safety of my child. The fears and anxieties many of us are feeling about COVID-19 are, in many ways, based on our desire to keep our families safe.
As summer approaches, the windows and doors will be open, pools will be filled and online classrooms will be empty. Many of the ways we keep our children safe and occupied during the summer — camps, clubs, day care and play dates — are no longer available. That means a lot of unstructured time for our children — and boredom can be a dangerous thing.
At the same time, many of us are more distracted than ever, with Zoom meetings and work-from-home activities taking up a lot of our bandwidth and attention. It’s easy to think that only a minute has passed instead of five, or to miss the sound of a door opening and closing.
Now multiply that dynamic by hundreds of children in your community. Think about your new listing with a pool or a trampoline in the backyard. How reliable is the gate’s latch there? What might happen if a child wanders in and it takes the parents or homeowners a minute or two to notice?
At The Address, our agents are sending a reminder to their spheres of influence to offer some tips for child safety as summer approaches. I’m including it here so that you can feel free to make it your own and share it with your SOI as well.
In addition, you may want to send along an infographic (like this one) or share something on your social media or as a free download on your website.
We talk a lot about value-added content. Safety tips like these can help increase awareness and make children safer. For my money, there’s no more important message to share right now than that one.
Troy Palmquist is the founder and broker of The Address in Southern California. Follow him on Facebook, or connect with him on LinkedIn.
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