The importance of teaching your child how to call 999
I remember hearing a story a while ago about how a little girl saved her mums life by calling 999 after witnessing her mum fall down the stairs. I can’t imagine how scared that little girl must have been, but her actions were incredibly brave and it made it me question what I, or more to the point, what my children would do in the same situation.
Up until hearing about that story our girls wouldn’t have known what to do. I’d never talked to them about what to do in an emergency situation. Would they simply wait for daddy to come from work? Would they open the front door and try to get help from a neighbour or passer-by? That in itself could be dangerous as they could easily step out into the road or meet someone who’s intentions weren’t good.
Thankfully in our new house, the girls can’t open the front door so easily, although again that makes me worry about what would happen if they needed to let in the police or paramedics. Anyway, I guess that a different post in itself! Getting back on track I decided to talk to our four year old twins about what they should do if mummy or daddy had an accident.
I wanted to convey the importance of the message without scaring them. I sat down with them both one day and talked to them about what the various emergency services do. I then showed them on my phone how to call 999. I found the best way to do this was to tell them to press the number nine, three times. The girls took it in turns to swipe the screen, press the emergency call button and then they counted the number nine out loud three times before pretending to press the green call button. Obviously in a real emergency situation I’ve told them to press the button.
We practised this a few times until the girls got the hang of it and then it was time to talk to them about what they’d say when someone answers their call.
I think it’s so important to talk to children about this as soon as possible. Repetition is good as it helps them to remember, but also allowing them to practise dialling 999 and practising what they say when someone answers the phone on a regular basis is important too.
Have you talked to your child about this yet?
3 Comments
Kim Carberry
April 7, 2016 at 7:21 pm
I have been through this with my girls…It is so important for children to know what to do in an emergency.
Mrs G
April 7, 2016 at 7:59 pm
I have definitely thought about this, but until now felt Tigs was maybe a little too young to get it. Maybe now she's four we should have this conversation again.
Thanks for the inspo, and for linking up to #coolmumclub.
x MMT
Lylia Rose
April 12, 2016 at 6:23 pm
I think we'll do this with Bella in a few months when she's four. We were actually discussing it recently, but she's still quite the 'threenager'. I fear if we tell her now she'll get hold of our phones and actually call them!