Make an Emergency Child Care Plan
Fast: you have two children, one of them is seriously injured and has to go to the hospital, and the other cannot go in an ambulance. What are you doing? Or! You cut your finger very well when making dinner, and you know the stitches are necessary, but the kids are running around and your partner isn’t home yet (or you’re the only parent). Now what?
In most cases we can arrange babysitting in advance. And even if this help for some reason does not work, and now we are late for the meeting, it still does not qualify as an emergency. We can make multiple phone calls, send multiple text messages, or drag the kids with us just this time. But when serious illness or injury strikes, and now you are faced with trying to give a sick or injured person the help they need, plus not leaving their children, things become risky. Moreover, if you are traveling in one gulp.
Jansi Dunn writes for the New York Times that it is because of these situations that all parents must have an emergency child care plan. She found it a good idea after a trip to Maine with her husband, daughter and nephew; they were still on vacation when her husband started having severe stomach pains:
We soon learned that Tom had appendicitis. Far from our home in Brooklyn, I had nowhere to park the kids, so for the next 36 hours before and after Tom’s emergency surgery, I put a mischievous grin on my face and tried to keep my nephew and daughter in the mood. up.
As it turned out, this task was more difficult than caring for my husband.
Create contact list
Start your emergency child care plan with local thinking in mind. Reach out to four or five friends or family members in your area and ask if they will be on your emergency contact list. (You should also offer to be on their side; that’s fair.)
It’s best if they all live nearby and try to pick at least one parent from your child’s school (in case you need help with drop-off or pick-up) and one or two neighbors (because sometimes you really only have a moment to hit on the nearest door).
Store them on your phone so that they are easily accessible, such as favorites or emergency contacts.
Share important information
Then, create a shared document (Google Docs is a good option so you can easily update it) to store important information the emergency care professional might need, such as their school timetable or allergy information. Also include your child’s medical history, pediatrician contact information and health insurance information, just in case, as Dunn points out , they will also need medical attention while caring for this person.
And you can even go even further:
Nicole Delahussai, a lawyer based in Delotes, Texas, and host of the Hella Smart Muvas podcast, recommended drafting emergency interim custody orders that identify a local who is on file at the school and easily found at home. When such documents are on file, she said, “if children are away from home or stay at home with a minor, they will not be included in the child protection system if there are no immediate family members.”
If you are out of town (or no one can help)
Of course, the most epic of crazy nursing emergencies can happen when you are away from home – and away from your support system. Before setting off on your trip, explore the area to see if there are any emergency services for children.
There are also national emergency care options such as Babysitter Poppins . According to the service’s website, each caregiver has had “at least one face-to-face interview with our nanny employers, is at least 18 years of age, has received CPR / first aid training, and has at least three years of proven work experience. … with kids.”
Hospitals often do not have 24/7 emergency services for children, so you need to be prepared for another option. But as a last resort, you can also ask the hospital’s social worker for advice, as this is a problem they’ve probably encountered before.
Once you know what your contingency plan looks like, let your children know. Let them know in advance who is on your emergency contact list and that you trust them to take care of them until everything dies down.