Smart911

Remember when I almost choked to death in front of my kids? Yeah, fun times. Well, since then, I think a lot more about what we would do in an emergency and how I can make sure the girls are protected.

Yes, I installed a blaringly red and huge 9-1-1 button on my phone and taught the girls how to use it. But in a high stress situation, will they be able to get out a coherent message at four years old? Maybe not.

And I know 9-1-1 has tracking now, so that hopefully they'd find the right place. But what if it wasn't an emergency where the girls had any control?

What if someone broke in and I could call the number but not talk? What if there was a fire and everything was too hectic for descriptions and whatnot? Any number of things could happen in which emergency responders having my family's information at their fingertips could be very helpful.

So I signed up for Smart911.

Here's the blurb from their website:

Smart911 is a free service that allows citizens across the U.S. to create a Safety Profile for their household that includes any information they want 9-1-1 to have in the event of an emergency. Then, when anyone in that household dials 9-1-1 from a phone associated with their Safety Profile, their profile is immediately displayed to the 9-1-1 call taker providing additional information that can be used to facilitate the proper response to the proper location. At a time when seconds count, being about to provide 9-1-1 with all details that could impact response the second an emergency call is placed could be the difference between life and death.

Now, I admit, I felt a little squidgy posting that personal information up. But the site is secure, and honestly, all the internet cookies and sales trackers know everything about me anyway. It's not like I'm giving anyone anything new. I just put it all in one place. Privacy on the internet isn't really a thing that exists unless you work really, really hard at it. Like harder than you think you're working (I learned this in my mass comm classes).

Anyway, you might want to check into it for your family. Anything to help, right?

Smart911 info here.


 

If You Die or Come Close to It, Are Your Kids Prepared?

If you die suddenly, do your kids know what to do?

 Mine wouldn't have, and as I saw everything starting to fade, all I could think was, they'll be here with me all day. Who will feed them? Who will explain this to them?

I almost died last week. I almost choked to death. It wasn't the 'haha, you swallowed your water down the wrong pipe kind of choking,' either. Something full-on blocked my trachea.

 Thank God it was toast.

I couldn't breathe, couldn't speak. It's just as it's always described. I managed to get up and walk to the toybox area before falling to the ground. I had expelled all my air at that point, trying to cough it back up before it settled fully in my throat. Perhaps the impact of my chest against the ground dislodged it just a bit, because I was able to think, breathe in. I know you don't want to, and your body is telling you not to, but you must breathe in.

So I tried. I got just the tiniest, most insignificant trickle of air into my lungs, and using that and my hands on my diaphragm, I managed to get it out.

It didn't shoot out, like when someone does the Heimlich on someone else. It just barely moved, and it took a lot more coughing to clear it. For hours, I wasn't sure if the piece had gone up or down, but when I had no aspiration problems, I assumed it must have come up.

But what if it hadn't?

My two three-year-old kids would be left staring at me and trying to get me to respond for hours. Eight hours. Until my husband came home from work. They couldn't get out for help. They can't unlatch the front or back door. Childproofing that's normally for my convenience, now working against me. They couldn't call anyone. I have a smart phone and they have no idea how to use it. Again, a measure for my convenience, that spelled disaster in an emergency.

After this, I taught them how to unlock the phone. I downloaded an application that put a huge 9-1-1 button on the dashboard. Because with the cell phones these days, it's not as simple as dialing 9-1-1, is it? The kids have to get to the phone part, first. This takes that step out of the way.

I might plug in a house phone, too. What if my cell is on a high shelf if this ever happens again? The girls need to be able to get help, if not for me, for them.

I told them to go out to the porch and yell and scream as loud as they could if this happens in the future.

My husband has taken to calling at least once a day to check to make sure we're all still breathing. Literally.

It took me all day to get the feeling back in my legs. My kids now point to the toybox area when one of them talks with food in her mouth.

"Remember," they say, and they point. "Like mommy."

Remember is right. I'm absented-minded. I never consider these things could happen to me. I am wrong. If you haven't taught your kids emergency measures by the time they're my kids' age, you should.

A meeting place for a fire, emergency numbers, how to dial the phone, a neighborhood house to run to. All these things should be in place.

Because you never know.

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Smarts Aren't Just About the ABCs

I spend the majority of my day playing with and catering to my kids. We do spelling games, sound games, and rhyming games. We draw, trace and identify letters and numbers. We talk a lot. They used their first adverb the other day. They know synonyms and homonyms. (Not by the names, just by definition.) They're constantly asking questions and internalizing the answers. They amaze me every day.

So why is it that in an emergency situation, they would have no idea what to do?

Parent fail, that's why.

I didn't even realize I hadn't imparted this pertinent information until a few days ago. My husband was playing with them with a toy phone that came with their kitchen. They were gleefully calling the police and taking him to jail. But they didn't know the number. Then my husband said, "oh! I'm hurt! Call an ambulance."

And the game stopped.

The girls just stared at him, like, what?

They knew about doctors and well visits and bandages, since they've had experience with all of those things. But, thankfully, they've never witnessed a true emergency. And since it never crosses my mind, I never taught them about it.

And in one night, the girls went from clueless to knowing exactly what to do. And they never had to leave the premise of the game.

"Call nine-one-one!" My husband said, missing just a beat. And the girls sprung into action.

"Wait!" they shouted. "Where is it? Where are the numbers?"

My husband showed them.

Within minutes, they had taken control again. "Call 9-1-1!" one of them shouted, and the other would dial the correct numbers. We told them what to say. "Hello, there's an emergency. Please come quickly."

And now they know. The girls went from playing to prepared, and they didn't even know the difference.

Now, will they really be able to call 9-1-1 in an emergency? Probably not. They'll probably try to use their toy phone. But it's a start.

When you teach your kids, you can't forget the basics. I'm guilty of that often. Luckily, my husband has my back.



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