It struck me after reading Average Concerned Mom’s excellent post on schools and children, that I haven’t seen a thread on how we should prepare our kids for a possible pandemic. I think it warrants some serious attention.
I guess what needs to be done is something along the lines of the following, suitably tailored to the age of the kids concerned.
1. What a pandemic is.
2. What will happen (in general terms) to you and your children if there is a pandemic (eg SIP).
3. What you want your child to do, and not do (eg. always washing hands).
4. Then perhaps some training in tasks and ways that you want your kids to help you (eg. Looking after little kids, Dog etc.
5. Emergency actions the child should take (eg Knowing how to use a phone and who to ring if you get sick)
Over to you.
Well, now, while emergency services still work, they should already know how to call for help if they are old enough to (uh) dial(I’m getting old) the phone; seemingly healthy adults can suddenly have various sorts of internal/external medical emergencies that could prevent them from being able to summon help for themselves.
Seems some people have been telling their children about pandemic alert period the whole time, and some have been trying to shield, and, everything in between. Every family is different.
Knowing where things are and how to use them, and as much basic safety skills, first aid and simple nursing skills as they can be taught?
There are severeal threads on this topic. A big factor is how old the child is and his/her maturity level. Persoanlly I’m not telling any of mine anything right now (ages 10, 6 1n 3). While my oldest could handle the topic, my middle one would stress way too much about something that might not happen and my youngest would never understand. But I am working with them more to be able to do more on their own - opening certain food items, do laundry, etc. I am also making a phone/emergency list for them and others should anything happen to dh or I. CR has a good idea with basic nursing skills - I need to show mine where all the first aid stuff is, review what to do with a cut, etc.
My 13 yr old asked me if she could stay up late every night.
I told her “wake at dawn and sleep at sunset.
She was not happy.
There will be strickt rules and schedules in my home… 2 exercise periods a day and chores aimed at survival and learning as well as lots of playing and singing.
Let’s get it started…