Is Your Au Pair Prepared for a Safe Summer?
Summer is quickly approaching and your children and au pair may be spending more time with one and another. Is your au pair ready for the long, hot days of childcare this summer? Does she have the resources at her fingertips to cope with long afternoons with nothing to do and the boredom it creates in young children? Does she know summer safety tips that will ensure the children will be secure around pools, playgrounds and in the home?
It is important to take the time to help her put together a list of summer activities - you know your area better than she does and you and she can sit down together and research parks, swimming areas, hiking trails, arts and crafts programs, etc., and personalize the list for each child according to their interests.
Now is the time to review safety issues with your au pair. Whether you have a pool or she takes the kids to a pool, she should be reminded about safe swimming rules! Some au pairs take books to the town pool and let the lifeguard watch the kids - this is a big mistake! The lifeguards are usually young teenagers who can and do become easily distracted. Also, there are lots of kids swimming and playing in and around the pool and faces can start to blur. One mistake, and a tragedy can happen. Tell your au pair she must have her eye on the children at all times when swimming - this is not the time for R&R and a good read! She is on duty and she must watch those kids when swimming.
Hiking is fun and au pairs (or most of them) like to hike and walk - they do more walking abroad than we do in America! However, she should know the safety tips for hiking, which includes not becoming separated from the children, carrying in water and a small firstaid kit and a cell phone, good walking shoes and a map of the park. Children can get lost and they should be provided with two essentials:
1. A whistle around their necks, so if they do get lost, they can use the whistle to call for help (and not their voices, which quickly get tired and sore).
2. Hiking Rule Number One: if you get lost, stay in ONE place. Tell your au pair and children that they should never wander around, trying to find the path or the others. Stay in one place, use your whistle and wait for help.
Many children (and adults) have died due to exposure and lack of water when they broke this very important rule - as they walk in circles and around and around, the rangers trying to find them would be a step behind until they found their bodies.
Here is a great link to the American Pediatric Association and their tips on safety: http://www.aap.org/advocacy/releases/summertips.cfm. It covers pools, heat exhaustion, bicylce safety, playground safety, etc. You can print out their tips sheets and post them on the kitchen bulletin board and give a copy to your au pair to read and study.
Does anyone have good summer safety tips to share with our readers? Please post them here for all to read!
Have a great and safe summer!
Getting Lost in the Woods - Survival Guide
Good Post! I know a lot about Search and Rescue. You are quite correct - the number ONE vital piece of information you should teach your children is: STAY IN ONE PLACE. Do not wander around, you only make it more difficult for searchers to find you. You also will need to find shelter, but do not hide (as searchers may miss you), stay warm, don't eat berries, etc. that you can not verify are safe, stay away from streams and large bodies of water (where you can drown), and, yes, if you have a whistle, use it! Here is a site where you can print down the 9 survival tips for Children if they get lost in the woods: http://www.sarbc.org
Tip Sheet - Survival in the Woods
Thank you Rogers for the tip sheet.
We had a young adult who got lost in one of our large parks a few years ago. He was mentally challenged and wandered away from a group that had been hiking in the park. It happened in the early summer, and the nights got pretty chilly and he only had on a light jacket and shorts.
Well, the search and rescue team did find him, a few days later, dead in a ravine. He died of exposure. He had also wandered pretty far from the last point where he was seen by the group, so it was confirmed that he was looking for a way out of the park, but he only went around in circles, in the already dense brush, and they could not see him, either from the ground or by helicopter. What surprised me was how quickly one can perish from exposure. I would think an accident or lack of water would kill a person first, but no, he died of getting chilled and not being able to keep him body temperature at a normal rate.
While he was out there in the woods, it had rained a few nights!
I also read you should always hike with a large black plastic garbage bag in your pocket or backpack. When the nights get cold or it rains, you put the bag over yourself (make holes for neck and arms). It keeps you dry and warm through the nights and when it rains.
FYI hikers - take a bag, it folds up pretty small and light and you can even stick the bag in your pocket.
Thanks again!
Have a safe summer,
Edina
Good Post and Information!
Hey, I don' know if my Chinese au pair is going hiking anytime soon (she is not the 'hiking type') but I found these posts very interesting and have been googling survival tips, etc. Not that I am going hiking anytime soon either! Just fun to read about and to imagine yourself out there. In the woods. Au pairs sure do have to have multiple skills, don't they?
One of our friends had a new au pair who got lost a day after she arrived - but in the car! She was to go shopping for food with one of the host family's 7 year old boy, and she made a wrong turn and they were missing for 10 hours. Finally, the boy, who was crying and upset after 2 hours of driving around and around, made the au pair pull into a gas station and ask for directions. He jumped out of the car and called his mother on the phone inside the garage and she came out to get him (and the au pair). She was furious!
So, au pairs can get lost anywhere, anytime and in any kind of situation - buy lots of maps if you don't install the GPS in the car (well worth it - our au pair uses it all the time).