Simple Things You Can Do Today To Protect Your Children (Part 3 in a series)

Look more carefully at your child's car seat.


I'm not talking about the actual safety factors of your children's car seats, although that is clearly very important. I'm instead asking you to look at the car seat's safety beyond that of the car.

I'm pretty sure we are all aware of how the car seat protects children in an accident. This is what they are for, but what happens after an accident is just as important as what happens during the accident.

EMT personnel remove your child, while still in the car seat, from the vehicle involved in an accident.

This is for the protection of your child but also gives you an opportunity to protect your child.

If you (or the driver) was injured or even killed in an accident would your child be able to give important information to the emergency personnel? Could they say his or her name clearly? What about the address, emergency contact information or, more importantly, if they are allergic to any medications? Of course not and I'm not suggesting that you expect your child to do so. I am suggesting we think of the car seat as a communication device.

If you or the driver are ever hurt in an accident you can protect your children by giving the EMT personnel and law enforcement important information about your child right on the back of the car seat. This information could possibly save your child's life if they were hurt, but also it limits the time the child needs to be outside of the care of people you know and trust.

Take two note cards and write the following information on it:

- Child's full name
- Emergency contact information of at least two people (at least one local person). Make sure to include addresses and home and cellphone numbers labeling them.
- Important medical information such as allergies, local doctors, and current medications.
- Things that you think might help the person who will be taking care of your children until your emergency contacts can get there. Example: Nicknames of the child, talking points (even if your child can't speak) such as favorite pet's names, and the child's favorite type of animal (often teddy bears are given to kids during these times and if the police know that your child loves cats they might be able to find a stuffed one).

Place both cards in an envelope labeled "Emergency Contact Information" and tape it to the back of the child's car seat or underneath for boaster seats. Why two cards? Why not just tape the information to the car seat? Because this allows two people to have the information without things getting mixed up in the rewriting. Emergency personnel can have one and so can the person looking for your child's emergency contact.

If you think your child will be fine without this information and they still can't legally ride without a boaster or car seat, you need to do it anyway.

This information should be up-date each time your child out grows a car seat or on your child's birthday.

Each car seat, each car. Information is everything.

Simple Things You Can Do Today To Protect Your Children (Part 1 in a series)

Clearly, there are things that most people know about when it comes to protecting children like always buckle them up - in the backseat, always keep some sort of eye on them etc, but there are lesser known, lesser used thing that can protect your children.

This is the first part in a series on simple things you can do today to protect your children.


1. Get a family password

I remember our family having one when I was in elementary school and my parents were still in the military. I clearly and confidently told the soldier that was instructed by one of my parents to pick up my brother and me from school that we weren't going if he didn't have the password. He did; we climbed in the backseat.

A family password is pretty much what is sounds like. A word, preferably a phrase, that only the family knows and only uses when they need it to convey safety. For example, if a Mom tells her son that she will pick him up after soccer practice, but then plans change for whatever reason and she is no longer able to pick him up (such as a car accident). She then can send someone with the password to pick-up her child. The password will convey to the son that this pick-up person is safe and part of the new plan.

There are important points to this idea:

- Passwords aren't a good use for your messed up household planning. They should only be used in an emergency, not because your dentist appointment ran late.

- Phrases are better than single words for the same reason that internet passwords often require punctuation. Phrases are harder to guess.

- Along those lines passwords are better when they don't make sense in normal conversation. For example, green airplane is a better password than big airplane and hairy lamppost is better than tall tree. Think of things that are easy for your children to remember. Better yet ask them for their help coming up with one. It's likely they will remember the password better that way.

- If it's used once it's probably still safe. Used twice and it should be changed.

- Some people are automatically safe, meaning they don't need the password. I recently talked to a friend about this idea and she told me that they discussed with their kiddo the list of people who aren't required to have the password to pick him up for example. The parents trust these people enough that it doesn't matter.

- The most important point besides teaching your children that it's a secret is to teach them that even if they know the person if the person isn't on the safe list they must have the password. For example, I know my friend's kids, but since I am not on their family safe list if I go pick the children up unexpectedly I must have the password. My friend's son knows this. kids tend to think that because they know someone that that means the person is safe so it's very important that we as parents remember to teach our child that even the coolest of people isn't always the safest and needs the family password to change the plans.


Have a family meeting, get a password and protect your children.

Come back in the near future for more on this series!