Safety Rules

Joshua and Rose were both excited to tell me about the safety rules they have been learning this week as part of their "social studies" curriculum.
It reinforced, for me, the power of what the teacher says over what the parent says!  Even as they were telling me that they should wear seat belts in the car, they were buckling up in the back. How many times have Steve and I told them to sit still? Belts - in our car - are a punishment for misbehaving on the back seat.  They know that in England they will have to do this but it's just not a legal requirement in this country and so many cars come ill-equipped in the back. But today they were eagerly putting their belts on!
The other safety rule that brought a smile to my lips was the one they learnt about guns.  Do we ever talk about gun safety in England?  I explained to them that it was a product of their Americanised education that they were talked to about guns at school, and that guns are not widely seen in the UK like they are here or in the States.  It led to an interesting discussion about cartoon violence, though and this was brought up again later when we watched a Pink Panther cartoon together.
Rose got a little bit of the wrong end of the stick with computer safety (another safety rule I was never taught as there was no such thing as the internet when I was at school!).  She told me you should never give away your name or address to "bad" people on the internet. I said, "you should never give your details to anyone on the internet".  She insisted it was just bad people.  I said "How do know if people are bad or not?"  No answer!