It’s late at night, the room is dark. You can’t sleep and your mind begins to wander. You replay the day’s events over and over again in your head. You think about news coverage you watched as you prepared dinner. The horror on those families faces as they begged for help to find their missing child, the smoke billowing from the home where the firefighters pulled out the family pet, the dark red blood that covered the ground after the hit and run. The evening news shares those images with you as you were about to sit down to a family dinner.

You start to wonder, in the comfort of your bedroom, could that happen to us? How am I going to protect my kids in a world of bad things? You start to sweat and your heart starts to race.

This is not an uncommon thing for parents, this late-night panic, as our minds start to review the events of the day. The “What ifs…?” start to fill your mind. After a day of social media, and TV throwing these graphic images our way all day long, how can we help but to worry.

So, I have headed to the professionals for their help, easing all those mom brains out there.

Here are tips on how you can protect your child from disaster and possibly save their life! None of these tips require you to spend any money!! They are just things that take a few seconds every day. Completely worth it if it protects those sweet smiling faces!

 

**** I am not a professional safety expert! These are just tips from people who work in this career field.  This is not professional advice, just tips from conversations with them. ***

 

Fire Fighters: Close Before You Doze

I asked Steve Baker from Golden Valley Fire Department, what was one thing that parents could do to protect their children? Something that we don’t think of that could save our child’s life.

Steve Baker responded, “Close the door before you doze”. Easy right! Most parents keep their child door open at night so they can hear the child cry in the middle of the night. However, this could be a big mistake!

Keep all doors closed at night! Close your laundry room door, the door to the playroom, your child’s room door, and your own.

If a fire does happen to break out in the middle of the night it will be contained to that room. As we all know fire feeds on oxygen, so if you limit the amount it has access to, it may save your life. Allowing you time to get out of the house.

Steve made this wonderful video for us, to show the dramatic effect closing a door can make in a real fire situation!

Now as everyone knows, please make sure that you have smoke detectors in every room of the house. If cost is an issue, most fire stations do have fire alarm drives once a year.  Give your local fire department a call for more information.

 

Paramedics: Car Seat Cards

Heaven forbid that your family is in a car accident. At times, the driver is unconscious at the scene, however the kids are safe in their car seats in the back seat. If you have a card taped to the side of their car seat with emergency information on it, it could be a life saver.

Make sure to include any allergies or medical conditions that your children have. This will help the first responders on the scene. Also include their name and date of birth. After an accident, children will be scared, even calling them by name will provide them with great comfort! It also allows the paramedics and nurses access to their medical records!

Have a name and number of at least one emergency contact person, someone who would not be in the car with them. Such as a grandparent or other relative.

 

Police: Screens Down at Dinner

Please don’t just skip over this one, with the common parent eye roll! I personally know how hard this one can be after a long day with young kids.  You just don’t have it in you for a long battle at meal time. If you can get them to zone out as you sneak veggies in their mouth, great!

HOWEVER, there is a really important message regarding screens at dinner.

Big Lake Police Chief Joel Scarf, says if he could tell parents to do one thing it would put the screens down at dinner time. Take a few minutes, ask you kids about their day, be engaged in your child’s life. Your kids want you to care about what is going on in their life, what their friends said, which team they were on in gym class, who ate what at lunch. Chief Scarf says that this simple act would make huge changes in the community! This simple act of the ‘old fashion’ dinner will help protect your kids!!

 

We have tons more tips coming from the professional in part two and three!! Stay tuned!!