Ready for Anything: Teaching Kids Emergency Response

And I'm going to share a story with you that helped me realize how ready my son was for a real emergency. I'll share what I learned and what you can pass on to your kids. All of that and more ahead on The Secure Dad Podcast. With data breaches becoming more frequent, it feels like we're losing control over who has access to our personal information. This is why I feel that DeleteMe is more important than ever.

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So there I was, laying on my back, staring up at the ceiling of my garage. My foot was still resting in the ladder that I had just been on. I looked up at my son and I asked him, "So what do you do now?" It was a summer morning and my son and I were doing some work around the house. I forget why we were in the garage, but I would soon learn that this simple chore was going to be an eye, eye-opening experience. for the both of us.

I was working on a ladder, again I don't remember why, and my son accidentally bumped into it or shook it or something. But I suddenly felt like I was going to fall off and I was very concerned that I was going to fall six feet and hit the concrete that was below me. Now, thankfully, that didn't happen. I was able to stay on the ladder. You know that rush of emotions and adrenaline you get when you have a near miss?

Maybe like you spotted a snake before you stepped too close, or you got out of the way of a bad driver in traffic? Well, I had that feeling. Many times this leads to either anger or rage, so that we as humans can dissipate all of that emotion and all of that adrenaline that we just experienced, because we just, we just experienced something scary. Now thankfully, I have the thought in the midst of all of this. What if I had fallen? Would my son have known what to do?

And it was at this point that I realized that we had a great learning opportunity. Now I didn't get mad at all. I decided to turn all of that energy into something and channel it to be something good. So after a couple of minutes, I explained to my son that we were going to have a scenario and I was going to quiz him on what to do. So I layed down on the floor of the garage and I told him, I'm not moving and you can't wake me up. So what do you do? Now immediately he said, I'll call 911.

Perfect. Great start. So then I asked, "How do you do that?" And then he paused. And I could see the wheels turning in his young mind. While he knew that calling 911 was the right answer, he really didn't know what to do next to facilitate that. Now, many parents today think that their kids will know what to do in an emergency because you feel like you would have known what to do in an emergency back in, you know, the 1900s when we were growing up.

But unless we test our kids and we teach them, we really don't know. We can tell kids call 911, but do they really know how to do that? Can they get your smartphone out of your pocket and make that emergency call? We can't assume that they know how to do that. So, in my scenario, my son didn't know how to dial our home phone. And yes, we do have a home phone, and you'll understand why here in a few minutes.

Now, we rarely use it, and we only really have it for situations for emergencies so that he can use a phone. So I told him to go get the phone and come back. When he returned I took the battery pack out of the phone so that it wouldn't work and I handed it back to him. And then I told him, I want you to dial 911. So he activated the phone, he dialed 911 and he again, the battery pack was out. So after he had dialed all the numbers, I went into my cheesy announcer voice.

Thank you for calling 911. For police, press 1. For fire, press 2. For medical emergencies, press 3. Now my son frequently looks at me like I have lost my mind, and this was one of them. So he pressed 3. And then I took on the role of the 911 operator. And I said, 911, please state your emergency. He said, my dad fell off a ladder and I can't wake him up. Okay, can you tell me your address? He gives the address. I've got an ambulance on the way, can you tell me what happened?

So then he goes in and he describes a scenario. Then I said, okay, sweetie, can you stay on the line with me until the ambulance arrives? And let me tell you the amount of side eye he was giving me for calling him sweetie while lying on the floor of the garage was really strong. He knew that this was ridiculous, but he was playing along with it. And he was learning. He was getting it. At this point, I ask him what he would do to make sure that the EMTs could get to me.

In our case, he was just simply going to open up the garage door, which is what he did. So now, the garage door is up and all the neighbors can see me lying on the floor of my garage with my son, doing a fake 911 call. And I'm not used to being the weird family on the street. But there we were. At this point, I told him that the ambulance had arrived and the scenario was over.

Before I got up, I asked him if he could even get my smartphone out of my pocket in case there was a situation that we found ourselves in where that was the only phone that he could get to. Now, it was a struggle, but he got to it. And then I showed him how to make an emergency call on an iPhone, and I suggest that everybody teach their kids how to do that. So before I got up, I told him to notice that nobody else in the neighborhood was coming to help.

None of our neighbors had seen what had happened. And it was up to him to step up and act in this emergency scenario. We went over a few variations of the scenario about how he would let the ambulance crew inside if we were inside our home when the accident happened, like not out in the garage, how he would open the door and all that sort of stuff.

So, you, if you've been a long time listener of the show, you may remember that on another summer day a few years back, I had a really bad cut on my foot. It was a freak accident. It was very strange. You can go back and listen to the episode if you want. But, my son helped me with my emergency first aid kit, and he got to see me work the problem. I ended up going to urgent care because I couldn't get the bleeding to stop, and I ended up getting stitches on a toe.

But I was calm, and I was collected, and so was he. He was a little nervous, but he didn't get scared. He couldn't have run off, and he didn't. He stayed with me, and he helped me work the problem.

Don't miss the chance to teach your kids how to respond to an emergency. While we want to think that we'll always be there to protect them, the fact is that that's not always going to be the case. If everything goes to plan, our kids will become young adults and adults with families of their own. I think too often parents in my generation are just trying to do everything they can so that their kids don't feel pain or discomfort. But pain and discomfort built us. That's why we're here.

That's why we're doing the things that we're doing. And we need to let our kids experience that as well. Our kids may one day need to be the person who saves a life. We need them to learn from us how to protect themselves, how to act when things go wrong, and what needs to be done. Kids can be very helpful preparing for emergencies like storms or other natural disasters. I've often said to give your kids a few tasks that they can do to prepare for things like hurricanes.

Kids can gather flashlights, food, and then pack games in the emergency kit so the family can have a distraction while everything is going on around them, while they ride out the storm. As they get older, give them more responsibilities and explain why you're doing what you're doing. Now, as I demonstrated in my story with my son today, kids can call for help. Show them how to dial 911.

Share with them the types of emergencies that might happen in their home, like a medical episode, a fire, any other unforeseen event. What you don't want to happen is when it matters most, your kids do not know what to do. You do not want them to freeze. In one of my many wonderful conversations with self defense expert Randy King, he described freezing as the brain searching for information on what to do next. But there's nothing there. And that's why the prolonged freeze happens.

While our kids may freeze up in a fight or flight process, we don't want it to be prolonged and we don't want it to be because they don't know what to do. We want them to snap to remember, Oh wait. I've seen something like this before. This is what I need to do. That's where we want them to be. And of course, we can't create garage scenarios for every situation that they may face. But the next time you see a problem, don't let it go to waste.

Talk about it and discuss what you did or what you would need to do in that particular situation. And don't just talk at them, really discuss it. Ask questions, answer questions, and do your best to help them understand. One day, when we are not around, they are going to need these skills to save their lives. Just make sure they are thankful that you taught them.

Well, that's all that I have for The Secure Dad Podcast for today. Thank you friend for listening. If you want to better protect your home, consider my Amazon best selling book,

There you can watch all of my interviews and find exclusive content. Just search for The Secure Dad the next time you're on YouTube. I'm Andy Murphy reminding you that our safety is our own responsibility.