I DO appreciate that the schools do Fire Safety Week. I DO appreciate that they make homework out of it, forcing me to talk to the children about where to meet up, how to break a window, where to wait for the firefighter if they can’t get out of their rooms and we can’t get to them, how to keep low to inhale less smoke, and so forth.
But I DO wish they’d give us a heads up, so I could make sure beforehand that there was sufficient liquor in the house.
You brought it all back so clearly! I remember Man-Child telling us so seriously that we needed to have a plan! WHAT WAS OUR PLAN? Just from the memory alone, I need a drink.
Fire was always my biggest fear as a child (it still is one of the big ones!). Needless to say, fire safety week used to TERRIFY me. In fact, the thought of the video they showed us one year STILL makes me anxious.
OOOH, I always HATED fire safety as a child. First, they ruin your day by taking you out of your precious, precious routine, and then they show you a video in which children Do Things They Should Not Do, and There are Consequences. I always “watched” the video with my eyes closed and my fingers in my ears. And then was paranoid about dying in my bed for weeks afterwards.
Ugh.
How should the kids break the windows?? I have tried teaching them how to open the windows (they are 3 and 5 so even that is hard)…but I don’t even know how to teach them to break the screens. They can barely open our front door because of the friction on the rug. And I am torn about the baby gate at the top of the stairs because I don’t want one of them falling in the middle of the night, nor do I want it to make it hard to get out in case of a fire. and they have bars on their upstairs windows to prevent falling out! We’re all gonna die.
Lorelei was SHOCKED to hear that we didn’t have a specific fire plan. I was like, “Well, we have smoke alarms. If we couldn’t get downstairs and out the door, I guess my first idea is to open the window and scream for our neighbors who live 20 feet away. Then, I would probably jump down and Daddy would toss you down to me. I would try not to break too many bones.” She gave me a look like, “I can’t believe you guys are in charge.”
The video they made us watch gave me nightmares for years. The gist of the video was ‘when a fire starts (AND IT WILL) you have less than three minutes to get everyone you care about out of your house before they will all be dead, no takebacks.’ I joke about it because it still makes me really uncomfortable that they would show that video to little kids.
Heather R- They likely wouldn’t be able to, but I’ve told them it would be worth a shot to use the bunk bed ladder (or anything they could lift) and try to crash it through; and that if they can open the window, they might be able to shove or kick out the screen (or use the bunk bed ladder).
OMG, yes! So, this is a…thing? My oldest is in K and we had a complete meltdown this week over fire safety. We had no plan, a house fire could start anytime, must be able to see Mom and Dad at all times! Started with a nondescript bellyache and finally the truth came out. OMFG. FWIW, i was at the pediatrician for another kid and mentioned it and he said it is totally normal.
The preschool class dealt with this by talking about community helpers (in which Adriana told her class that the policeman will come and take her away if she’s yelling in the car, calling me out for my awesome parenting skills), and learning how to call “9-9-1”. I love listening to the 3 year old perspective on it, it’s probably significantly less entertaining each year that goes by.
I also feel that way about Red Ribbon week. Definitely need a drink to get through the repeated tellings of how liquor will kill me dead and if I ever had a cigarette, even just one in college, that I am on my way to black lung.
This is our first year & I agree with others that it freaked out my kindergartner. But his solution was if there was a fire he would yell “FIRE!” so I could get out safe ;)
We talked about touching the door to see if its hot. They don’t go over that now? I told him if its hot to go out the window. That has locks on it. So he won’t crawl out at random times. I really don’t like thinking about it!
Ah, yes. We have been “required” to participate in fire drills at our house this week, too.
Oh yes, a heads up would have been awesome. As bad as it sounds, I may have kept my oldest out of school that day and talked to her myself. Instead she’d come home in a panic that the house was going to burn down while she was sleeping and we were going to die. Followed by sleepless nights because she would have nightmares about fire. Night after night after get-me-some-vodka-night! Nothing I said reassured her.
I hear you, sister.
My kids were apparently de-sensitized this year. Last year, drama. The kindergartener stopped going to bed independently last year during that week and it was a few MONTHS before we got back. I was distraught trying to help show them how to get out of our windows. Distraught. This year they didn’t even ask about that, which was okay with me.