Teaching Situational Awareness to Kids

REELDOC

REELDOC

The creek won't clear up til you get the pigs out.
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A few years ago I was meeting a forum member to pick me up a new shooter. I won’t mention his name, but he knows who he is…

So I’m sitting in this big parking lot, basically no other cars around. I can see the building he said he was in, so I figure I’ll just wait for him, he’s a good dude, he will be out in a minute. I avert my attention to something stupid like throwing angry birds at pigs or seeing what the most recent drama on Facepage is…and I hear a tap tap on my window. I glance up and he is there, right beside me.

I open the door and he says “not much for situational awareness today huh?” Or something along those lines…

So…yeah…situational awareness is one of those things you think you have until you don’t. This man walked across an open parking lot to tap on my windshield. I missed every single step he took.


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When my kid reach the age I felt he was old enough not be scared by it and was something we could do it fairly discretely I made a game of situations we were in kinda like “I Spy”. At first it was more about getting out of a store, restaurant or such if there was a general emergency like say a fire. As he got older and more mature we added other situations and actions available. He learned at an early age to know where exits were, location of fire extinguishers, what was “going on” around him not on a screen, etc and progressed to what environmental items at locations could be of use in situations. Everything from what could be used to break a commercial glass window to get out of a fire (along with what could happen when you break a window in a fire) to what and how things can be used as an improvised weapons. To me it’s kinda like teaching your kid to swim at an early and as they get older go to the drownproofing level … knowledgeable people make smarter and aware decisions that can save their butts!
 
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I like playing the opposite of this where I sneak up on people to see how aware they are without making it into striking range. Most of the time at work I can make it into a chair beside someone without them ever knowing I was in the same room as them to start with. It absolutely astounds me how little attention people pay.
 
When grandson was around 8 years old he used to really listen good to what I told him (not so much now). I really worked him on awareness, things to look for, etc. We were at Toys R Us one day and as we were coming out I looked right and saw a homeless dude standing there with his coat open and a bowie knife strapped on. My hand was already in my pocket when grandson moved over to my other side. We kept walking a little and he said PawPaw, did you see the man with the knife when we came out the door? I got on the other side of you like you said. My chest swelled up like a puffer fish.
 
COLTIMPALA said:
I like playing the opposite of this where I sneak up on people to see how aware they are without making it into striking range. Most of the time at work I can make it into a chair beside someone without them ever knowing I was in the same room as them to start with. It absolutely astounds me how little attention people pay.
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At a carbine training course (we were to do no training with handguns) we were told to wear our handgun strong side OWB. When we arrived for the classroom we they swapped our handguns for Blue Training Guns. Throughout the weekend the instructors would try and steal your handgun except when the range was hot for safety sake … in the classroom they’d catch you from behind sitting there, on break talking with other students or instructors, etc. The first day they were at least 75% successful but as time wore on we learned how to stand/turn when anyone was near, how to read others faces you’re talking with, etc. We got it down to maybe 25% by the end of the course which actually they said wasn’t to bad. To bad I have forgotten most of that training … show if you don’t use it you will lose it.
 
COLTIMPALA said:
I like playing the opposite of this where I sneak up on people to see how aware they are without making it into striking range. Most of the time at work I can make it into a chair beside someone without them ever knowing I was in the same room as them to start with. It absolutely astounds me how little attention people pay.
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What's just as astounding is they don't care, either.

Walkabout Dan said:
You either have the instincts or you dont .
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Fear is a big motivator. Someone that's been physically assaulted, if they're not debilitated by the fear usually has a heightened awareness. So, it can be learned.

I play a simpler "game" with my kids, if you want to call it that. I'm always drawing attention to things I see. "Wow, did you see that tree?" "Wasn't that odd looking?" So, they pay attention, just to keep up.
 
georgel said:
What's just as astounding is they don't care, either.


Fear is a big motivator. Someone that's been physically assaulted, if they're not debilitated by the fear usually has a heightened awareness. So, it can be learned.

I play a simpler "game" with my kids, if you want to call it that. I'm always drawing attention to things I see. "Wow, did you see that tree?" "Wasn't that odd looking?" So, they pay attention, just to keep up.
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Very true at first but then most return to the complacency from which they came. I have a family member who is a perfect
example of what we both speak.
 
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