Teen Burn Safety: A Parent’s Guide with Three Key Takeaways

Educating our teenagers is one of the most challenging roles of parenting. Adolescent invincibility, rebellion, risk-taking, and carelessness can all contribute to the frustration we feel trying to impart essential safety messages to our kids. Gone are the days when we snuggled while reading a storybook with a safety lesson or listened with pride when they reminded us to “look both ways” or remember our seatbelts! Now, a more subtle approach is the way to go.

To foster positive risk-taking and minimize negative behaviors, consider these general tips when interacting with your teen:

₋          Promote Safe Exploration: Support your teens in pursuing healthy and constructive activities, encouraging them to explore interests that build their confidence and skills.

₋          Discuss Consequences: Have open conversations about the potential risks and consequences of risky behaviors. Help them understand the real-life impact these choices can have.

₋          Model Positive Behavior: Demonstrate responsible decision-making and resilience in your own life. Teens are more likely to follow positive examples set by adults they respect.

Role-modeling in particular is a tried-and-true way to quietly and gradually teach without turning your teen into a contrarian. But how do you role-model burn and fire safety specifics?  And how do you get messages across when it feels that your teen isn’t listening to you?

As an example, let’s take a look at kitchen safety.  Scalds (hot liquid burns) and contact burns (solid object burns) happen more frequently in the kitchen, although they can happen anywhere.  Rather than scolding your teen for not observing safe behaviors, cook safely yourself while “mentioning to nobody” what you are doing and why. For example, muttering phrases like, “Let me just move this pan to the back burner to keep it from spilling,” or “Now, where are those potholders?” gets the message across without engaging your teen or appearing to lecture.

If you have a family pet, human burn prevention strategies keep them safer, too. Capitalize on your teen’s affection for the animal(s). For example, move hot items to the back of the counter, saying, “I don’t want this to spill on you, Rover!” Relocate a dangling cord, saying, “Don’t chew on that, Mittens; you could get an electric shock!” or close the oven door before moving away from the stove, stating, “Let’s not burn your paws, Fluffy!”

Make a habit of adding your own version of “narration to nobody in particular” as you role-model the following and other safe behaviors in your teen’s presence:

₋ Rolling your sleeves up to your elbows or above before cooking (“Oops…don’t want my sleeves to catch on fire!”)

₋ Tying your hair back when at the stove (“I can’t stand the smell of burning hair!”)

₋ Cooking with fats only in a pan with a matching lid to extinguish a potential fire (“Nothing smothers a pan fire like a matching lid!”)

₋ Letting your microwaved item cool for a minute or two before opening the door (“Rest is best before the taste test”)

₋ Keeping hot appliances at the back of the counter even during use (“Better to reach than to screech!”)

Remember…your teens are watching everything you do, and despite their eye-rolling and nonchalance, your actions will stick—even if that’s not apparent right away.  So keep up the burn-safe kitchen behaviors, for their lifelong safety as well as yours!

To learn more about fostering positive risk-taking and preventing burn injuries, email us at burnprevention@childburn.org.

Participants of the CBF Teen Support Group shared smiles and camaraderie during festivities at the CBF office, celebrating their journey together in healing, burn prevention and support.