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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 15, 1987)
UULUU $ niAlUlUJ/\L Udlfy[\ kids, as long as the children are given adequate care.’ Finlay says some studies even show advantages to being a latchkey kid. "They like their mothers more because they respect her for working,” she says. “They don’t see her as just sort of the household servant “Especially daughters who grow up in households where the mother is out working and bringing in money, and so forth, tend to have higher goals for their own lives. “Children in families where both parents are working tend to develop more responsibility and therefore become more independent earlier. “On the other hand, children who have always had mother at home often will depend on her to do things for them longer than they would have had they been doing it for themselves. Finlay turns to her students for some answers. “I ask my students in the family class I teach if they think it’s bad for children if mothers work. A few people raise their hands. “Then I ask, of those students who have working mothers, how many of them think it’s bad. Almost nobody ever raises their hand. ” Finlay has found evidence that proves working mothers actually spend more quality time with their children than non-working moms. “They (working mothers) go with the kids to the park and do special things to sort of make up for the time they are at work, ” she says, “whereas mothers who are at home all the time have a tendency to spend that time in front of the TV or something like that. “So, it’s not just the number of hours spent at home, but the quality of the relationship and the alternative care the children may be receiving. ” According to Finlay, fathers are taking more of a role in child rearing these days. “Young fathers today, for example, are participating in child care much more in the early stages, ” she says. “They even go with the wife to the hospital and help throughout the birth process. “This help in the earlier stages seems to create a stronger bond with the children than the traditional way where the man sort of stood on the outside and wouldn’t change a diaper. “The fact that men are more attentive to their children and more involved in that (child care) helps both children and marriages. It helps the relationship between husband and wife because they are sharing more. ” Recently, more and more organizations have become interested in child day care and have provided some simple solutions to problems latchkey kids may face. Ms. Carol Carlan of the Dallas Police Department suggested in the Dallas Morning News article that children and parents adopt a “code word. ” “It can be anything—yo-yo, hippopotamus, green bananas,”she said in the article. “If somebody comes to the door, or goes to the school and says he or she is a friend of the child’s parents, the child can ask for the code word. If the person doesn’t know it, the child knows not to go anywhere with that person or let him or her in. ” According to the article, last year Camp Fire created Kidtalk, a “warm line” for latchkey kids. If they get scared or just want to talk, they can call Kidtalk. Phone lines are open from 3 to 6 p.m. on schooldays, according to Janis Dumas, director of social service programming for the organization. “We felt there were a lot of children out there who were feeling nervous and scared,” Dumas says in the Dallas Morning News article. “We can almost tell the weather by the phones. When we have a storm, those phone lines light up.” The article reported that in the beginning, Camp Fire estimated Kidtalk would only receive 50 calls daily. When the number reached 200 a day, and the phone company informed the council they were missing 60 percent of the calls, Kidtalk had to expand. Now children can be put on hold. During the hold they hear safety tips. “We’re constantly surprised at how many children we have calling in, ” Dumas says in the article. “We had one little boy call who had trouble with his homework. The volunteer he talked to told him some good basic study habits. “He called back later that year to tell her he’d gotten an ‘A’ in social studies. ” St. Joseph’s “latchkey” workshop can help by Anne Neidinger “Latchkey” children in Bryan-CoUege Station will learn basic first aid and personal safety precautions at a workshop Oct. 17 and 24 sponsored by St. Joseph Hospital and Health Center in Bryan. “Latchkey” children are children who must be left alone while their parents are working or running errands, says Lou Miller, a project analyst at the hospital and organizer of the program. The workshop, “Latchkey Children — I’m in Charge," is part of the hospital’s “Learning to Live” series, which involves programs and events about various health concerns and is designed to educate the community, Miller says. Miller, who is on the Community Education Task Force at the hospital, says there is a need for the workshop in the community which seems to be intensified by the disappearance and murder of 9-year-old Kandy Kirtland of Bryan in May. Kirtland went to Crockett Elementary School. “I think a lot of parents were U IV., —- home The hospital previously sponsored a first aid program to children in the fourth, fifth and sixth grades, she says, but this is the first time a program about personal safety for latchkey children has been offered in this area. “This year we thought we would incorporate some of the selLcare skills that a child may need at home because more f and more children with both parents working need to be at home for a little while by themselves,” Miller says. Each Saturday workshop is limited to 30 children in the fourth, fifth and sixth grades and lasts from 8 a. m. until noon. Miller says half of the group will learn basic first aid from Dianne Church, a registered nurse from the hospital, and the rest of the children wifi leam personal safety from the volunteers of Aggie Alliance, a student service organization of health and physical education majors atA&M. The children will hav' i refreshment break and ti .en switch topics. During the break, Miller says, a representative from the sheriffs department will fingerprint and photograph each child for an identification card called “Identikid”. She says this is a preventive measure to be used in case one of the children ever disappears. f u/ill onmuraae the parents io Keep up wm. regular photographs for their children in case they ever need it,”_Miliersays. oi me topics: telephone safety, door safety, fire safety and stranger/non-stranger safety. Each topic will be taught by one of the undergraduate health or physical education majors from Aggie Alliance, Sandy Mains, health chairman for Aggie Alliance, says the 12 volunteers from the organization are excited about their first “hands on experience ” opportunity to educate fire community in an area of health. In the past, the group has helped in blood drives, fun runs and the Special Olympics, but the education of latchkey children gives the volunteers actual teaching experience in their profession, she says. MiOer says the materials used to aid in the education of personal safety consist of workbooks and other educational tools from the - _ r» 4 t. Care Program for Children, ! which originated in a Pasadena neighborhood watch association and is now used statewide. The children will be taught how to answer the telephone and door without letting the caller know they are abne in the house and how to avoid giving out personal information. Millersays. Emergency use of the phone will also be taught. In the area of fire safety, “Exit Drills In The Home, ” or EDITHs, will be discussed as well as other steps to take in case of a fire. The children will also be told about lures that strangers use to gain their trust, such as enticing them to see a puppy in a car. Miller says. The idea that not all dangerous people are strangers will be discussed as well “We fry to teach this in a non-frightening situation, ” Miller says. “The world isn’t full of bad people. Most of the people are good, but it’s hard to tell the difference so you have to use precautions. ” She says parents of latchkey children are not required to come to the workshop, but letters have been passed out to the parents of students in the Brvan-Colleqe Station school system. The letter describes precautions children should take as well as rules parents can set up for their children, such as making the child call the working parent when he comes home from school. Although children may be taught precautionary and safety measures at the workshop, parent reinforcement is important and ground rules, such as determining home fire exits, between the parent and child must be set up, Miller says. The Texas Crime Prevention Association does have a disclaimer for the program. Miller says the children are being taught how to protect themselves but that their safety cannot be guaranteed. “We want to teach them these skills and develop some rules and communication between them and their parents,’’Millersaid. “Parents have to participate. ” The hospital requires a $5 materials charge. Parents may call the hospital’s Community Relations Department at 776- 2458 to register their children. Miller says the program will be extended if there is a demand for more workshop dates to be setup.