Covering Every Base: How Parents Should Prepare for Emergencies

As parents, it can seem like it’s our default setting to worry. It can keep us awake at night from the moment we bring our children home from the hospital all the way through to their teenage years, and even in adult life.

One of the biggest problems we’ve all got as parents is that we prefer to sit and worry rather than do something about it. It’s about making sure we know what we have control over.

Emergency situations may seem to grab us by surprise but it’s important to remember that we’ve got tools that we can either develop or plan to give us a big backup. Let’s show you some things that can help you to be prepared for emergencies.

How Parents Should Prepare for Emergencies

Backup Supplies

Let’s start with the simple things. From portable power stations to emergency food the biggest problem we’ve all got is that when there are issues like power cuts or natural disasters, we think that we have no control over these things.

When it comes to emergency situations, nobody knows when something will arise, and rather than thinking that you need to react at that moment. you can have a look at the problems that could occur in your home and therefore be more prepared. 

It’s not helpful to plead ignorance, especially when we are living in a home that is supposed to protect us.

Therefore, taking the time to understand the weaknesses in your home and doing what you can to reinforce those weaknesses will make a big difference in your frame of mind. Something like your roof can let in a lot of rainwater and cause damage to your property. Start to think about the weak points in your home and have backup resources to help you.

First Aid and Other Essential Skills

It is easier than ever to learn first aid online as well as understand the things that could occur to yourself, your children, and your family in general.

A very good example is our children choking. If our children chew too quickly on something and they start to choke, it’s important to know the basics of the Heimlich maneuver. One of the biggest problems every parent can have when they don’t have the skills is that they start to panic. 

The most important thing we all can benefit from is having an understanding of all of the appropriate skills that can help in these situations.

You will already know the benefit of applying pressure to a wound, but even if you don’t, rather than feeling guilty that you don’t know everything about basic first aid, you can take advantage of the many resources that will give you that essential skill. 

The great thing about having the skills in place is that they’re not just going to help your children, but they’re going to help in real-life emergency situations.

There’s nothing worse than having the regret that we could have done something more when somebody was suffering. This is why first aid is a skill that really should be taught widely.

Preparing Your Mindset

We’re not saying that you need to be ready to pounce at any single moment like a cat, but you need to be aware that when an emergency arises you are able to deliver on every count.

There is a saying that when emergencies occur, “we don’t rise to the occasion but we fall to the level of our training.” When you have the skills in place and you reinforce your home environment and arm everybody with the right knowledge you can feel more peace of mind, but it’s when these emergency situations occur that we can feel a greater sense of panic.

This is why preparing your mindset is critical. 

If you find yourself as an overly stressed parent in every part of your life you may find an emergency situation to be one of those things that can be tough to handle or you can find that instinct takes over.

The important thing we can all benefit from in every aspect of our lives is to train our resilience so we fall to the level of our most basic skills. Practice is essential, especially when we’re talking about first aid and the Heimlich maneuver, but we also need to recognize the physical symptoms of stress in those moments.

We’re talking about the fight or flight sensation or the sense of panic that can occur that makes you want to run away. 

When something happens to our children, instinct is more than likely going to take over but even if something happens in the streets and somebody passes out, you can utilize skills that many ER doctors have in place and recognize how to control the fight or flight response.

The best thing is that this requires practice away from the situation. Techniques like deep breathing or regular meditation to calm yourself down can help, as well as make sure that you learn to maintain focus in the chaos.

Financial Preparedness

When an emergency hits, it can knock us for six in terms of our emotions and physical or mental health, but it can also attack our bank balance.

This is especially true in instances like floods are natural disasters. It is important to have an emergency fund in place. A lot of people don’t have an emergency fund because they’re always trying to stay afloat. 

It’s important to change your money mindset here. The 50-30-20 method is an amazing tool, where you are spending 50% of your earnings on the essentials like bills and food, 30% on the things that you want in your life like little treats, but the remaining 20% has to go into an emergency fund, savings, or investing. 

When we think about preparing for emergencies, we’ve got to cover every single base. From knowing the skills to preparing a mindset as well as making sure that our mindset is able to deal with it.

When you start to feel more in control of a situation, you will handle it better and you can pat yourself on the back knowing you’ve been able to deal with something difficult.

Julie Higgins
Author
Julie is a Staff Writer at momooze.com. She has been working in publishing houses before joining the editorial team at momooze. Julie's love and passion are topics around beauty, lifestyle, hair and nails.