If you have smoke and carbon monoxide alarms installed on every story of your home and outside bedrooms, and they each have fresh batteries, give yourself a pat on the back.

Trick-or-treaters, beware. The scariest place to be on Halloween isn't a cemetery or haunted house: it's on the road with an impaired or distracted driver. Safety experts warn that with so many children outside in the dark and many adults attending parties, the consequences of careless driving are even more severe.

“Halloween is really the perfect storm,” says Karen Benner, spokesperson for Allstate Insurance Company of Canada. “You have low light conditions, large groups of excited children in the street, adults who have been celebrating and drivers who may not be paying full attention.” Benner's fears are not unfounded: recent statistics show that 80 per cent of car collisions are caused by distracted drivers, and 20 per cent of traffic fatalities among children occurred after they ran into the street.

Summer is here, and going to the beach to cool off and have some fun is on everyone’s mind. While it’s easy to load up the car and just drive down to your favorite stretch of beach when you don’t have children, taking your kids to the beach can be a somewhat complicated affair. We recognize how hard this can be and we put together a quick guide with some very useful tips for planning a trip to the beach with your children and on what to do once you’ve hit the sand.