Too many parents unknowingly allow their children to become targets as they travel abroad to celebrate birthdays, graduations and Spring Breaks. Here are some important guidelines in how to inform yourself and your child on the possible risks while making their trip as safe and enjoyable as possible.
It happens every year. You see the newscasts. A beautiful young American girl celebrating her graduation from high school on a trip to a tropical island with her friends has been abducted. Hopeful please from her parents are aired daily on national television every night until the final newscast, weeks later, when we hear that her body has been found on a beach somewhere. The full scholarship that she had to a Big Ten college will now seed a memorial scholarship fund. The life that had only just begun, that showed such promise, has ended. Don’t let this be your child.
Don't be Naive
Few Americans realize that the rest of the world is not as safe for their children as our country is. “Oh, sure” you say, “but I’m sending my kid to a resort in Aruba, not some war-torn Baltic state!” I’m here to tell you that it just doesn’t matter. Too often, we forget that resorts abroad still carry their own risks. We make the mistake of believing that sending our young adults to a resort on an island that depends on tourism is as safe as sending them down the street for a newspaper. Unfortunately that just is not true. Following are a few things you should discuss with your child before you send them on that celebratory graduation trip to a special paradise.
Accept Your Share of the Responsibility
Discuss the people involved in the trip, both known and unknown. Will there be chaperones? If so, how many and how much will they actually be chaperoning? Who are the chaperones? Make sure that you know them and feel safe with them supervising your child. Where will your child be staying? Will it be a hotel, hostel, barracks, campground or beach? How secure will their sleeping quarters be? How many people will have access to their quarters and inevitably their belongings?
Know the Inherent Risks
What sort of activities will your child be participating in while they are abroad? Is it a working vacation or simply recreational? How skilled are they in the activities they’ll be doing? Is your child a first time skier going to a world class mountain? Are they a poor swimmer going on a scuba vacation? Are they completely inept with a hammer but going to build houses in Honduras? What is the legal drinking age where they are going? If they are of an age to drink there, what experience do they have with alcohol? Be sure to talk to them about date rape drugs, how they are used and how they can protect themselves. Date rape drugs have become very sophisticated, easy to acquire and even easier to use. Simply allowing another person to bring a drink from a bar to a table four steps away is enough time to drop a date rape drug into that drink and have it be undetectable by the time it arrives at the table. Leaving a drink unattended while going out on a dance floor to dance one dance is long enough for somebody to slip something into that drink and make it deadly. Explain to your child how important it is that they never take off on their own and always have a friend or chaperone with them (and by friends, we don’t mean newly made friends in the host country). Many foreign countries have less than honorable police, politicians and military. Attractive young Americans can literally be sold into slavery overnight. Children of wealthy Americans can easily be snatched for ransom by desperate foreigners anxious to make a large amount of money quickly. Young women and men can easily be snatched, raped and murdered before their parents even know they’ve gone missing. These are very real risks when traveling abroad. Ensure that you explain this to your child so that they understand the absolute necessity of always having a friend or chaperone with them.
Inform Yourself and Your Child
Where is your child traveling to? Have you seen this place in the news lately? Where is the nearest U.S. Embassy to where they’ll be staying? Ensure that they realize that if there is any trouble or they feel they are in any danger at all while they are visiting that they should go directly to the nearest U.S. Embassy where they can replace lost travel documents, receive protection and assistance in returning home. Be sure to check with the U.S. State Department for travel advisories and warnings. These warnings can be found at the U.S. Department of State website (www.state.gov) or you can find a phone number in your local phone book in the government pages. Will they be traveling to a country whose primary language is not English? If so, are they proficient in the host country’s language and dialect? Will others traveling with them be proficient in the language? Are the residents of the country they are visiting friendly or unfriendly toward Americans? Will they be traveling directly to their destination from the U.S. or will they be stopping over in another country? How safe is the stopover country according to the U.S. State Department? When checking for travel advisories and warnings, always be sure to check every area covered in the trip’s itinerary.
Do Your Homework
When will they be traveling? Are there any particular dangers from weather patterns in that area during that particular time of year? Will it be their rainy, hurricane or avalanche season? Do they know what to do in the event of a natural disaster? Do you have a communication plan in place in the event that a natural disaster may occur while they are visiting? Be sure that they know they should get in touch with you immediately after any major incident, natural or unnatural, so that you’ll know that they are safe and where they will be in the aftermath.
Don't Let Your Child Be a Target
Americans make excellent targets. They are typically naïve and trusting people who rarely consider the dangers of being free and easy on vacation. Young Americans who have just graduated from high school believe that the world is their oyster and nothing can happen to them. Surely we, as parents are not so old as to forget the days when we believed we were ten feet tall and bulletproof!
It won’t be easy explaining to your newly graduated child that they aren’t indestructible, but it is necessary. Young adults who set off with stars in their eyes simply cannot see the dangers ahead and although you thought your job as a parent would be done when they graduated and left home, you still have more to do. If you treat your child as the adult they want to be and explain the dangers of travel abroad, you will have at least equipped them with the knowledge they’ll need to avoid danger when possible, keep themselves and their friends safe and hopefully avoid tragedy.