Teaching Your Kids How and When to Use 9-1-1

Kids seem to be drawn to numbers. When they hear a phone number on the television they automatically want to call it. I recall during my own childhood those constant Empire commercials would tempt me to no end to pick up the phone and dial 800-5-8-8-2-300 (Empire). One day I gave in to this temptation and picked up the phone and dialed only to hear an operator on the other end say "You've reached Empire, how can I help you?" Of course I hung up without saying a word and no harm was done except wasting a few moments of the operator's time.

But what do you do when you're teaching your kids emergency numbers and they want to call them to see what happens. Many younger kids are already fascinated with police cars, ambulances, and fire trucks. A lot of their first toys they play with are little replicas of those vehicles. So if you tell your child that by calling 9-1-1 that an emergency vehicle would show up at your door, many of them might be tempted to call just to see if it's true. Some kids don't understand that they should not call this number unless it's an absolute emergency.

Suppose your child does call 9-1-1 and it's not an emergency. Should you scold or punish them? Naturally you don't want them playing around with this number but you don't want them so scared to dial it that in the event of a real emergency they don't call. I recall my mother telling me of a time when my brother prank called 9-1-1 and hung up when they answered. An operator called right back and spoke with my mother about a child playing on the phone. In that case, my brother was punished because my mother had stressed to him the importance of that number and how it was nothing to play with. More recently, my nephew has become fascinated with the number. He is eight years old which in most cases would be old enough to know better but he has autism. His brain doesn't comprehend things the same way as others might. He knows that 9-1-1 is an emergency number but he doesn't understand the consequences of what happens if he calls the number when there is no emergency. The first thing that comes to his mind is fire trucks and ambulances. He's not thinking that calling 9-1-1 when you don't have an emergency can possibly block a real emergency call from coming through. Punishing a special needs child who doesn't understand the severity of his actions isn't going to solve the problem so he basically has to be watched at all times when he is around a phone. Cell phones in the home have to be locked when they aren't in use just in case he picks one up and tries to dial out.

One way parents can teach their children about the importance of dialing 9-1-1 and when it's an appropriate time to do so is to talk to them frequently. Many schools and daycares have visitors from firefighters, police officers, and EMTs to teach the children when they should use emergency numbers. Some schools even take field trips to the stations and get to see first hand what goes on when an emergency call comes in. In addition to educating kids about the use of emergency numbers, try to keep the phones in your house out of their reach. Also, a recent story on the news warned about giving children your old cell phones to play with. As long as these phone power on, even if service is not connected to the phone, 9-1-1 calls will still go through and they cannot be traced. Talk to them frequently so that they understand the difference between a 9-1-1 emergency and just an incident when they need to go tell a parent or trusted adult.

There have been cases when 9-1-1 operators have hung up on children because they thought they were playing on the phone. In some of these cases, there was an actual emergency. This is why it's important for kids not to play around with emergency numbers. It can be a matter of life or death and that fact is often too much for such a young mind to comprehend.