Dannah Eve, a criminologist from Chicago, has a word of caution for families: develop a secret code word that all members of the family know. She went on to explain that she and her family had a code word when she was growing up. It was something she has used throughout her life and still uses with her own family today. The word could be used in a dangerous situation, or just in simple situations where your child wants you to be the one to say no to something. If somebody is to pick up your child from school and that person is not you or your spouse, give that individual the code word so your child knows that person is trusted to pick them up. Make sure your child knows that no matter how believable the story is, unless the person uses the family code word, they're not to go with that individual. Eve went on to explain that a code word can also be used in a dangerous situation. Let’s say a child is home alone and someone enters the home, the child can call their parents and somehow work that code word into the conversation. That will alert the parents that something isn’t right. Lastly, a code word can save your child from situations they don’t want to be in. For example, maybe your child has a friend over and that friend is asking to sleep over. Your child can come to you and use that code word in a normal conversation, which lets you know your answer should be no to the sleepover. If a child is at a party and things start to get out of hand, they can call their parents and use the code word in a casual conversation that lets the parents know to come and get the child. As for what your code word could be, Eve suggests that it could be a sport that nobody in the family plays, or a food that nobody likes. “When it comes to the family code word, this is definitely something you don’t want to overthink,” she said.
