How would you describe "emergency" (as in reasons to call 9-1-1) in one sentence for a 9-12 year...

[sunnysandiegan]

Thanks to a comment in another thread (leaving a child home alone), we read through a link given with our 9 year old DD. We already knew she wasn't ready to stay home alone for more than five minutes, but we wanted to start the discussion with her and begin actively working on certain aspects of that.

DH & I have all our emergency contact information in our respective laptops and phones, but there is no easy access for our child. So, I created a list and called some folks to verify information and to ask for official permission to have certain people be points of contact in various scenarios. All is well and I have an good workable list for DD.

I want to include a sentence under "In the event of an emergency....911" describing when this would be appropriate. I can think of all sorts of sentences that are accurate, but I am looking for a single encompassing succinct sentence that a 9-12 year old would understand. My single sentences are thus far, too cryptic for DD. Help!!!!

Also, where do you keep such a list and what is on your list?

Thank you!

[Daffodil]

How about: Emergency = Someone might die if you don't get help fast.

[Ceinwen]

My seven year old knows to call 911 if - someone is bleeding, there is a fire, or a person you can't wake up. She also is beginning to understand that there are certain emergencies that you can't plan for, and may arise on a case by case basis.

[sunnysandiegan]

I asked my DD when she would call 9-1-1 and she answered slowly:

If someone is gushing blood, there is a fire, there is another emergency, or someone is robbing the house.

Except for the "another emergency" being too vague, I think she has the basic idea. We've gone over this before many times, but she lacks confidence in her answers.

[mommajb]

You need help immediately, more than a neighbor can provide. You need this help from a police officer with sirens, a fire truck or an ambulance (and the reason will be in the newspaper tomorrow).

Except for the ambulance this is pretty true as we live in a very small town.

[zeldamomma]

I think I would tailor the sentence, depending on whether the kid is more likely to underreact or overreact to a crisis, and also how long you are planning to leave her. If it's going to be around 5 minutes, I would limit 911 calls to fire, gushing blood, and maybe someone trying to break-in (although in my neighborhood, I wouldn't bring up burglary over a 5 minute trip, because it's a lot more likely that they would misinterpret something than that there would really be a burglar).

If a kid is going to be home alone for hours, then I would look at the list here: http://firstaid.about.com/od/calling...whentocall.htm and filter for the ailments likely to happen to a kid who is home alone(mainly broken bones and bad burns-- I'd want to talk to a child before they called 911 over diarrhea or a nose bleed). I might have a list of reasons to call/text Mom or Dad, and list problems that are borderline there.

I'd also make the points that #1 it's important to only call 911 in a real emergency, because if you call and you don't really need help, it may keep help from getting to someone who does really need it, and #2 its important to call and get help if you need it, even if the reason you need help is that you were doing something you shouldn't have been. I'd probably illustrate #2 with an example of a mistake I might make, rather than suggest a specific rule that my kids might break.

[prothyraia]

....if something is on fire, someone is really really hurt, or someone is unconscious and you can't wake them up.

[sunnysandiegan]

Thanks!

"Robbing the house" comes from her love of mystery / spy books. The chances of that are extremely low, but it is on her radar.

She is having a hard time understanding "cannot wake up" or "unconscious", so I'll be working on that with her.

She tends to overreact in some situations and underreact in others.

We've talked about and role-played many emergency situations. I was looking for a one sentence reminder that can go on the family information sheet. She tends to panic in unfamiliar situations and that visual reminder may help her re-focus.

I ended up using two sentences.
One is the dictionary definition: Immediate risk to health, life, property or environment.
*She'll grow into this definition. She already understands the emergencies related to "environment" due to where we live: earthquakes, fires, floods. She already understands the emergencies related to "property" due to her own experiences of floods and fires. She is smart and could figure out a very serious life or death emergency without any experience. The two challenges are the word "risk" and defining some of the "health" situations.

I also included her own definition: If someone is gushing blood, there is a fire, or someone is robbing the house.
* I left out the vague "another emergency" and we discussed why.

Her definition is at the bottom of the content on the single half-page. It is the most easily seen at-a-glance, due to the white space around it. When we read through the list, though, she reads the first definition before her definition. Either way, these are meant as quick, visual reminders, not the end-all-be-all of emergencies.

On the back of the info sheet, I printed out the detailed list from our city's police dept web site describing when to call 9-1-1 (specifically for kids) and the checklist of information the dispatcher will ask when called (emergency or non-emergency; and I included both phone numbers on the front).

I put the two-sided sheet into a sheet protector and handed it to DD to review for a few days. (I already went over it with her a few times.) Then, it'll go on the fridge at her eye level. (We don't keep much on the fridge, so it'll be easy to spot.)

Next up is teaching her basic first aid. Ironically, I have empowered her to do so many other things for herself and this one I do for her every time. It'll be ongoing, of course, but I am planning to prepare her a kit of her own this week and talk her through the items.

DH & I also feel her phone skills need improving in order for her to actually use the family info sheet. She knows our home phone number because she calls home from grandpa's all the time. She knows grandpa's home phone number because she calls him frequently. (She also knows our address, including city, state, zip, and cross-street.) What she lacks is phone skills with anyone other than the three of us. We'll be working on this for awhile.