The Mom Chronicles: Lessons in Safety
So I suppose by now most of you have heard be it through Chad's story this past week or via other sources that last week was indeed a very big week for me. Not only did I pass my exams to become a Nationally registered EMT, but I had my first big adventure in putting my skills to use. Fortunately for me, and the little guy who required them, I was successful. This column, however, is not about telling the story, as I think most of you already got the jist. What it is aimed at doing, however, is to remind all of you just how quickly bad things can happen and how easily, in most cases, they can be prevented.
As both an EMT and writer of this column, I am dedicated to educating as many of you as possible and bringing equal awareness of the safety issues facing our kids and what our role as parents and as a community is in terms of preventing tragedys like what happened out at Lake Elmo last week from occuring. Naturally, I recognize and fully am aware of the fact that things happen. Things that are outside of our control happen every day, and while we can't then necessarily prevent them, we can do our best to be prepared for them. Therefor I am dedicating a great deal of my columns the next few weeks to various topics in child safety. I am not an expert. I only have the knowledge of the personal and professional experiences I have had. That said, I can share with you what I know and point you in the directions of the "real" professionals that have a knowledge much greater than mine in areas I am not so knowledgable in. And while I could get in to all kinds of details about complex safety measures we could put in place, in the end, it comes down to the basics. It comes down to parents being diligent about watching their kids, and in the times they can not be there, the importance of choosing someone to watch them that will be equally if not even more diligent then we as parents will even be. It's about educating ourselves and our kids. It's about doing the little things that we sometimes take for granted: wearing a seatbelt, a helmet while riding a bike, life jackets while in the water, not talking to strangers, knowing how to assess the emergency medical services through 911, and so on. It's about knowing things like basic first aid and CPR for when things do happen, and I was thrilled to see the education being done in the middle school to teach even our local students the basics in CPR, something that can be such a vital role in saving some ones life. And so while yes, I was able to assist someone in such a way that made a vital difference in saving their life, as a mom, that was not what I walked away with. It was the reminder of how important the safety of our kids is and how quickly lives can be changed in a few short seconds of non-diligence or letting our guards down. So I look forward to the weeks ahead and if you have an idea for a safety topic, please forward it on to me, and hopefully together we can see to it that our kids have as safe of a summer as possible.
On a final note, something that was difficult for me this past week was the credit I got for what I did on that beach. The reality is, and something that I am very humbled by, is the fact, I was not the only one there who stepped in to assist this little boy. Additionally, we have a whole group of people in our community who put themselves our there for each of you every day. They have saved countless lives, making my one not such a big deal. And the thing about these people is that they don't do it for the credit or validation. They do it because they have a true and sincere desire to help and impact the lives of others. And so I ask that you keep that in mind whenever you see an ambulance or fire truck or policeman. And I also ask that you take some time to educate yourselves about the roles that they play in our community, roles that extend beyond just driving an ambulance or showing up at a false alarm or pulling over a speeding pedestrian. They are people that are vital to the safety and well being of our community, and our appreciation for and support of them are vital as well.
Have a safe and wonderful week.
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