Hi all,
I must tell you all about a scary situation which just happened in our house. I have two children five and seven. My children have known about 911 and could repeat their phone number since they were three. As an educator, I always worked hard to teach my children critical information in case they ever needed it.
Imagine my suprise when my seven year old asked to call Grandma on the phone the other day. I didn't think anything about handing him the cordless phone and reciting the number. I was shocked when he said the phone was not working. I looked at it and dialed and the phone was working fine. I hung up and had him dial again. It was only after having watched him that I realized he did not know he needed to push talk to get the phone to connect.
We have an "old fashion" corded phone upstairs we normally use for family calls since it has a speaker built in. I had never thought to teach him that he had to push talk on a cordless phone and could not just pickup and dial like the upstairs phone.
With so many people having cordless and cell phones I am so glad I realized my mistake before he really had an emergency. I can just see him grabbing the phone to call 911 and not getting through because he did know to push talk!
Has anyone else run into this? I think sometimes we take technology for granted and forget the extra steps kids need to be successful. I am SO glad that I noticed this but I can't believe I never thought about it earlier.
Now I wondering what other basic piece of knowledge have I forgot to impart on him?
If I am the only one who has run into this, I am very embarassed. If you haven't thought about it make sure your kids know. It could be critical one day.
Still shocked,
Janet
Janet, You are not a
Janet,
You are not a terrible mom. You taught your son how to use the phone before a true emergency. Instead of you just dialing the phone you let him. I have four very talkative daughters and I feel like I taught them how to use the phone for the wrong reasons. They know 911 but they also know how to dial cousins and grandma and a few friends way too often. We also dont even have a corded phone in the house which we need in case of a true emergency and there was no power. Dont feel like a terrible mom feel like a mom who once again has taught her son something that will keep him amd his family safe.
Jennifer is a discussion leader for arizonamoms.com and mommy to four beautiful girls who range from 9 to 4 years of age.
This is great information to
This is great information to pass along.
My girls know to push talk, but I honestly can't remember how they learned that. Whether we told them or they asked, or just watched.
Don't feel bad, there are lots of things we take for granted. I asked my 9 year old to hand me the frying pan and she looked at me and the pots and pans and didn't know which one I was talking about. I was shocked. We don't fry eggs much, but I just thought she knew. There are lots of little things we think they know but they do not. Hopefully it doesn't take an emergency to fill in the gaps.
I am glad there was no emergency before he found out. Thank you for sharing your story.
KarilouMomof2 is a discussion leader for arizonamoms.com living in Tempe. Her daughters are 9 and 6.
You're not a terrible mom,
You're not a terrible mom, you're a great mom for sharing this important information!
You are by far not a
You are by far not a terrible mom. Sometimes as parents we are so busy teaching the important stuff (like numbers in general) we forget the basic (like to hit talk). Kudos for you for at least attempting to teach them numbers they need. My daughter has has a hard time with that (she has aspherger's) and as a parent I shoud work harder with her, but I lack in that area!
"It's not to late to become who you've always wanted to be..."
I am going to go home
I am going to go home tonight and teach my son how to use the phone. Thanks for the thought! Of course since we have a cordless phone in our house it gets left all over the house. Hopefully he would be able to find it in a time of emergency!Everyone probably knows this but be sure your kids know it is nine-one -one and not nine-eleven. They will never find the eleven on the phone!
LOL! Dont be so hard, my
LOL! Dont be so hard, my daughter is 11 and I am super open with her.. and she still comes up with wacky stuff that I never thought to clarify before!
Thanks much - now I need to
Thanks much - now I need to check all the phones in the house!
Susie is a discussion leader in the east valley for arizonamoms.com. She has two sons, ages 6 and 2.
This is a great point to
This is a great point to share. It is one of those simple things that you could definitely take for granted.
Thank you.
JuneSlager is a discussion leader for arizonamoms.com, raising three children (ages 15, 14, & 11) in Northeast Phoenix.