Good point! One thing we always reitierated with our kids is that anything CAN happen to anyone, no one is invincible. I think a lot of young kids think it can’t happen to them…lots of people think that, until it does.
There was a kid in D’s class who is paralyzed from the legs down, because he drove drunk. There was another kid who graduated the year I started teaching: he got drunk and went into the ocean for a swim. They had to get a helicopter to recover his body. He would be about 40 now. There was a girl in my nephew’s high school class who was among 3 kids killed in a car accident. The three kids who died where not wearing seatbelts. And a girl in D’s grade lost her younger brother in a drunk ATV accident. And there was my stepfather’s son who fell off a roof during a collge party and died. Again he’d be about 40 now too. And D had another friend who’s 18 year old half brother (he was a kid from her dad’s previous marriage) along with his girlfriend was killed by drunk driver while heading out on a camping trip.
And keep in mind these were all good, smart kids who would never hurt a fly, who had parents who told them to be careful and to use their best judgement. The best thing we can do as parents is to tell our kids to be careful, to make good decisions, to use their best judgement, to not drink to much and to not take drugs. Also, every action has consequences and poor decisions can affect other people in a negative way too. And no one is invincible.