What if I were gone?
…But I’m not talking about in the creepy dead way.
Yesterday my friend Sam picked up bread and eggs for me from Trader Joe’s, the two things I needed, since I had 4 slices of bread left and eggs are always being used around here. Now my trip to Trader Joe’s can wait till next week. Hooray!
Anyways, Sam brought the groceries to me while Eden was sleeping. Eden being the observant girl she is since I was too lazy to put the bread away and left the bag on the ground in front of our cupboard asked if I had gone to the store while she was sleeping. I told her no because that would have meant that I left her home alone and I would never leave her home alone. Then I took it a little farther into a lesson asking her what she would do if she woke up and no one was home. Eden told me she’d find the police. (We’ve been talking a lot about stranger danger and people danger overall lately.) Since I had just read a blog by my friend Amber where she found a wandering 3 year old on a busy street, I pictured Eden going outside to find the police and being ran over or something terrible happening. Truth be told our doors are hard to open and Eden has yet to open our front door without Lilah’s help, so I’m not too worried that she’s going to go wander the streets unless something terrible does happen and the door is left open. Anyways,รย I finally taught my girls about dialing 911 yesterday so they would know how to contact the police if they were home alone or is something terrible had happened to me or Jon. I’ve mentioned 911 to Lilah before, but yesterday I had them practice dialing it, since you can dial on our phone and then hit talk for it to really dial it. I emphasized that they could get in trouble if they dialed 911 without it being an emergency and since my girls don’t even answer the phone, they ignore it or bring the phone to me if it’s by them, I’m not too worried about them calling 911.
In fact my worry will be if they remember how to use the phone if a real emergency happens.
April 2nd, 2009 at 10:58 am
Bruce Schneier, world renowned security expert, talked briefly about what children should do if left alone. As always, he keeps a cool head on a subject that seems designed to make parents frantic.
April 2nd, 2009 at 12:10 pm
Hey, great job recognizing a teaching moment. I’ve found my fair share of wandering toddlers as well, so this lesson is very important.