The appalling events of last Wednesday have once more brought to our attention the danger that sadly surrounds us - not in Afghanistan or Iraq but on our streets.
As the mother of three young male adults I have been aware for many years of street violence, not in the same vein as last Wednesday - but there all the same. All three of my sons have been mugged not once but several times and one of my sons had stitches because of a stabbing.
Our children are and have adapted to this way of life. They are well aware of the situation, more so than us, and many of them, especially at night, plan their routes accordingly. Some of my boys' friends told me about their coping strategies. "I have two phones, so I can give them a phone that doesn't have my sum card with all my numbers on it," said one. Another said: "I never use white headphones as they are a dead giveaway that you have an iPod." A third volunteered: "I always keep smaller change in my pocket and I hide my wallet." Interestingly, I remember doing that in New York back in the '70s.
Is it inevitable that our children will be attacked? I think for boys in London it is almost a right of passage
As a parent, our first reaction is to wrap our kids in cotton wool and never let them out of the house. But clearly this is not practical. So we move into mentor mode, and begin to discuss prevention with them. We talk about street crime, what to do to avoid it, what to do if approached, how to react with intelligence rather than with hormones or emotion, the "no-brainer" of choosing to give up your phone, iPod, wallet - anything rather than your life. In the event, my kids seem to be better versed and more rational than we could have possibly imagined. But then they have thought about it, talked about it, rehearsed it. We haven't.
But if we cannot really help them with prevention, what can we do? How can we provide real, useful help?
The fact is that most teenagers do not have a clue as to what to do if someone they are with suffers a serious injury. So if we cannot help them prevent an attack, at least we can help them limit the consequences.
Many years ago, when, my youngest was just an infant, he suffered from febrile convulsions. Neither my husband nor I knew what to do. We had no training, no information and no experience. Though our child grew out of the condition without any ill effects, one of the changes for me was to take a first-aid course.
And now I organise through my company Safe and Sound Save a Mate Training Courses. We fully back the British Heart Foundation’s quest to ensure that all children leave school with basic first aid skills. It has to be one of the most important skills that we can ensure that our children learn. When one of my sons was at The Reading Rock Festival a few years ago and his mate passed out because he had taken a drug which had a bad effect on him, my son knew exactly what to do - but he was the only one who did know.
In an emergency we all need to react quickly and effectively because knowing what to do can make the difference between life and death.
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