The 411 About 911

A couple of things before you begin reading this, first off, I apologize in advance if this is jumbled and doesn't really flow well or make too much sense, I'm kind of writing this as I go, but I hope the general message gets across. Second, I write this post because if you are like the 100's or more of couples today, you don't pay for a landline anymore because its just cheaper for you and your husband to have your cell phones only. At least that's the way it is in our family. So with all of that being said...

A couple of weeks ago I had the opportunity to go with my daughter and her kindergarten class to the local fire station for a field trip. While there, the fire chief asked the kids many questions about fire and emergency safety procedures. Something new that I learned was that it is safer for your children to sleep with their doors closed, want to know why? Because it will take longer for the the smoke to get in their room, making their rooms a safer place for them to be until they get out the window or until you or the fireman come for them. Interesting huh? However, what really struck me was that when the chief asked the children "what number do you call in an emergencty?" Almost NONE of them said the answer! There was maybe one or two kids that knew to call 911! I'll be the first to confess right now, until now, I hadn't taught my kids about 911. I've had to call it myself a couple of times since I became a mom, but never thought about sitting down and teaching my kids. It's not that I was waiting for the school to teach my children, I just never thought that anything might happen to me or my husband that would make it so my children had to call 911.

Then the other day I was cleaning out the garage and re-organizing it yet again, when I noticed one of our shelf units was leaning away from the garage wall. Nothing happened to me, thank heavens, but the thought occurd to me, "what if that cabniet would have fallen on top of me? what if I couldn't get out? what if I got knocked out?". My children would have no idea how to help me, I'm sure my 6 year old daughter would think on her own to go call daddy, but with all of this new technology coming out with smart phones, I don't think my daughter would know how to call with my smart phone even if she has daddy's cell number memorized. There is an automatic screen lock on it, while all you have to do is take your finger and slide and it unlocks, my daughter doesn't know quite how to read yet. Then, if she could get it unlocked, she would have to touch the button on the screen that would lead her to the keypad, then touch the screen to hit 911, then hit "send". (Man, we had it easy as a kid, all we had to do was pick up the phone off the receiver and dial 911 and it connected automatically, none of this 5+ step process just to call.)

Anyways, I'm sure I could sit down and teach my 6 year old and my 4 year old how to use my smart phone and call 911, but I stopped to think about what kind of emotional state my children would be in when they would have to call 911. Would they remember all those steps to dial 911 on a smart phone??? I would rather not take my chances. Now, before I tell you what I did to solve my dilemma, did you know that any cell phone, as long as the battery is charged, can get through to 911, even if it doesn't have service??? How awesome is that? That means that one of my old flip phones that I have not used in years but gave to the baby to play with, as long as the battery is charged and my child can turn that phone on, they can call 911 WITHOUT having to have a sprint, verizon, at&t, etc phone plan. That makes me feel so much better! Because now I can teach my kids how to dial 911 the easy way! None of this smart phone stuff.

Well, of course, you all know me, I couldn't just stick with that. I actually got to thinking farther about when we have a babysitter. We have 2 regular babysitters that we switch back and forth between, one of which does NOT have her own cell phone. So when my husband and I go out on our dates, we either have to leave one of our phones (which yes, is very simple, but I kind of like to have my phone with me, I can't explain it, it just makes me feel better), or I have to leave my children and the babysitter without a phone, which is pretty stupid if there ever came and emergency. So I went to the store and bought a Verizon pay as you go phone. I bought the most basic flip phone to make it easy for my children to call 911, and it came with $10.00 of phone time already on it so that when the babysitter needs to call one of us, she has a way to do that. Kind of nice huh? The total cost of that phone was only $14.88 + tax at Wal*Mart. TOTALLY worth it for my piece of mind!

So after buying the phone, we got it all set up and then sat our children down and taught them how to call 911 and all the reasons why they should. Of course we will have to repeat the lesson often so that they don't forget, but at least I have made things easier for my children so that when they are in that situation they only need to remember "flip open the phone, dial 911, press the green button, and then tell the person what happened." We also put the phone in the most easiest of places for the children to remember, ours sits next to the family computer on the wall, we even have races with the kids to the "911 phone" so they can memorize where it's at, where will you put yours? I hope this helps some of you and brought some of you back to the reality of before smart phones. Maybe not too, maybe I am the only one who thinks like this, who worries like this. Thanks for listening to my ramblings. :)

Also here is a free printable (with a mini tutorial) if you want to put this with your emergency phone like we did. :)

Print out (I printed mine out onto cardstock) the printable and cut off the 2 ends...

Fold the paper in half...

Slide the phone into the middle...

Staple right under the number 0 so that the phone is able to sit out of the "envelope" a bit so its easier for your kids to see...

Staple the sides...

Pin it to the wall...

Practice safety with your kids!!!