Previous research has found that parents are aware of the need to teach their children about home safety and recognize this to be primarily their responsibility. However, little research has focused on the nature of different teaching strategies. Conducting an intensive home interview, the current study examined how parent and child characteristics influence the teaching strategies used to promote home safety. Mothers were asked to identify household hazards that were safety concerns for their child. For each hazard mothers indicated the extent to which they used teaching as a risk-management strategy and reported verbatim what they would say to prevent their child from engaging in these risky activities. Results revealed that safety strategies varied with the child's sex and teaching strategies were differentially influenced by maternal and child attributes. Specific teaching strategies were identified allowing for the development of a taxonomy that can be used for future research.