The last thing a parent wants to do is alarm their kids, so what happens when it’s time to teach your kids about preparing and staying safe during a natural disaster?
Sarah Thompson, Director of U.S. Preparedness for Save the Children, explains that keeping your kids informed and assuring them that there are actionable ways to prepare and stay safe will help them feel more at ease. To get the conversation going Thompson suggests opening as follows: “Today, we are going to talk about emergencies so we can get ready and practice. This way, when or if an emergency happens, we know what to do to stay safe.”
From there, know you are not alone and don't have to go in blind. There are a lot of resources out there that can help you move the conversation along and help you teach your kids. For example, look there are storybooks that focus on emergency preparedness, which can be a great way for your kids to learn and help them engage with the topic. Check out these helpful books: Playful Preparedness,The Emergency Preparedness Adventures of Brick the Wise Old Tortoise & Bill E. Goat, and The Magic Treehouse books. Another great resources is Ready.gov. They have a bunch of games, printables, and activities to help teach kids of any age about emergency preparedness– they also have a lot of activities that you can do together as a family which can ease the process even more.
The theme here is that you want kids to be as informed as possible about what to expect in case of emergency. The resources will help give them a great foundation so that they feel more relaxed. Once that layer is set another helpful activity is to assign your child a job. Reference what they’ve learned through their books and activities and then let them pick something they’d want to be in charge of; holding the flashlight, taping the windows, or, the most fun-sounding, cranking the radio. Introducing a job now will give them an activity in case of emergency so they can take their mind off feeling nervous and focus that energy into their given task.
Another helpful way to keep them feeling informed and secure is to do some test runs.. For example, if you have a designated place you know you’ll take shelter in case of a natural disaster, like a basement, then camp out there once in a while. Bring things they like, play games, while mimicking what could happen during an actual emergency this way they will be familiar with the shelter spot and be more comfortable if disaster strikes and you have to shelter there for real.
There are so many ways to talk to your children about emergency preparedness without scaring them, just remember to keep reassuring them that they are doing great, preparing and practicing helps, and that adults will be there to help keep them safe.
