Writing -- Baby Talk: Road sense, no sense

The following article featured in a weekly column on parenting in the Women on Wednesday supplement of The Evening Echo, one of Ireland's leading regional daily newspapers. It appeared in the 08 December 2004 issue.

The girls arrived home from playschool clutching a fistful of fluorescent armbands and almost bursting with excitement.

"Mummy, Daddy the Garda came to playschool, the Garda came to playschool!" they both chorused with the effervescent enthusiasm that is exclusive to children. It turns out they'd had a visit from An Garda Síochána to talk about road safety. The garda in question had a whistle, which was very noisy, and a torch just like daddy's. He wore a yellow coat, but he didn't have his hat… which they surmised was prob'ly in his car or left it in the garda station. He gave them bright armbands to bring home and took them outside to cross the road prop'ly and he turned the flashing lights on top of his garda car on and everything.

It all sounded terribly exciting… especially with two of them delivering it rapid-fire style, their animated commentary overlapping as they rushed to get the words out.

By and large they had approved of the visit. The general consensus was that the garda was "nice", although they weren't too sure about the noisy whistle. They don't like noise… which is odd, because they make more of it than anyone else I know! When I quizzed them about this they patiently explained that it was different. They had a problem with other people's noise. Their own noise, they clarified, was just fine. I should have known better than to ask!

Two of the boys, they informed me, had started across the road without looking. That was very bold, they said, and the garda and teachers told them that they should always stop, look and listen before crossing with an adult.

It's an important lesson for them to learn… but one that can take a bit of time to sink in. Even when it seems that they have grasped the basic concept of road sense you can never let down your guard. We always stress the fact that the girls have to be wary of roads. We always make them stop, look, listen and hold hands with one of us when crossing any road - and always wait for the little green man at pedestrian crossings. The girls always comment if people cross when the red man is showing.

I'm pretty sure that neither of them would venture across the road unsupervised… on their own. The problem arises when the two of them are together, and with twins that's practically all of the time. They tend to go into their own little world. Each of them eggs the other on, and in fits of giddy exuberance they can become completely oblivious to the outside world… including their parents, their little sister, strangers and, worryingly, traffic. In the middle of one of their spontaneous games they could quite easily dart out into the road without thinking about it. It's something we're constantly vigilant about… but you can't help but worry that the one time you're attention slips something terrible will happen.

The fact that the garda visited playschool to help reinforce the message of road safety is a wonderful idea. Special events like that stand out in their young minds. No matter how often we harp on about the rules of the road it's the visit from the garda they will remember - and anything that helps get the safety message across is definitely a good thing.