When the power goes out and the cell towers go down, do you have a plan? Do your kids and your ex know what that plan is?
Since disaster doesn’t just strike on alternate weekends, it’s important that you take into account both households when you’re a divorced parent. In honor of September, National Preparedness Month, we’ve compiled a list of everything you need to develop a customized plan in the event of a disaster.
Set aside past feelings and connect with your ex.
You fought over who got the widescreen TV; how are you possibly going to agree on where to go and what to do in a crisis? It’s time to set aside your differences and put your children, and safety, first. You will need to communicate during a disaster, and reaching out to prepare for one is a logical first step. Navigate your situation however it is most effective and set up that important first meeting or call to discuss the plan.
Consider your blended/mixed family’s specific needs.
The ages of your children will determine how much assistance they will need, and how much responsibility they may bear. If family members have medical needs, disabilities, or even special dietary restrictions, that has to be taken into account. Pets also need to be accommodated. List each member of your family—human and animal—and any specific needs they may have.
Determine the responsible party.
Children who are in school or daycare will need to be picked up in the event of a disaster. Pets may need to be secured or transported. Designate a responsible party to pick up children and one who will manage pets. It doesn’t have to be you or your ex, but it’s best to choose a trusted individual known to your family. Make sure that the individual is on the approved pick-up list at school or daycare, and has signed up for alerts. Also, make sure that your child knows who is allowed to pick him/her up.
Create an emergency communications plan.
The power may go out; the cell towers may be down. You may not have access to important information during a disaster. That’s why it’s important to create an In Case of Emergency (ICE) card.
List contact information for each member of both families, caregivers, and any other individuals involved in the disaster plan. This includes work phone, home phone, and cell phone numbers.
Choose an out-of-state contact to call in the event that your state’s phones and resources are down. That person can act as a main point of contact if you can’t reach each other.
Starting at about age 5, children can learn a phone number. Teach your child one parent’s cell phone number. Try it as a song to the tune of “Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star.”
Make sure your older children know your cell phone numbers, and don’t just press “mom” or “dad” on their phones.
If cell phone service is down, advise your children to follow the guidance of trusted adults such as teachers, school administrators, and caregivers. Reassure them that you will be with them as soon as possible.
Consider a prepaid phone card for use in an emergency.
Choose an emergency meeting place.
Depending upon the emergency, your home may not be the safest place to take shelter. If that is the case, you will want to choose a place in your neighborhood to meet. The local park, the school, the library, or your place of worship are all familiar and trusted options. If you are able to meet at home, make that the first choice—but be sure to determine whose home it is.
If you have to leave suddenly, there’s little time to pack. Having a grab-and-go bag or an emergency kit helps make sure you have everything you need. Pack a bag for every member of your family, including your pets. Include supplies for 3 days: a change of clothes, food, water, medications, hand sanitizer, blankets, etc. You will want a bag at each household, as you don’t know where the children will be when disaster strikes. Also, since children grow, and needs change, make sure you check your emergency kits every three months and update them as needed.
The type of disaster matters.
Severe weather is not the same as an earthquake or a fire. Have a plan for the different types of disasters that may affect your area. For example:
In a hurricane, tornado, or high-wind storm, stay inside your home. Choose a small, interior room without windows, such as a bathroom or closet, on the first level.
In a fire or evacuation, you may need to leave your home suddenly. If you need to meet, choose a spot in your neighborhood such as a playground, a big tree, or distinctive mailbox.
In the event of an emergency, make sure the lines of communication are open between you and your ex. Have a plan in place to notify that the children are safe.
Practice, practice, practice.
Make an ICE card with the basics of the plan (including contacts) that can be kept in each adult’s wallet. Include a copy in your school-age child’s backpack. Then, schedule some time to practice the plan with your children. Practice different kinds of emergencies with each parent.
There’s an app for that.
There also are apps that you can use to prepare for an emergency. FEMA offers interactive checklists and emergency safety tips. The Red Cross provides apps specific to hurricanes, tornados, and earthquakes. Plus, the government has some great resources for disaster planning, including games kids can play to get ready.
This article is furnished by California Casualty, providing auto and home insurance to educators, law enforcement officers, firefighters, and nurses. Get a quote at 1.866.704.8614 or www.calcas.com.
Back-to-school means back to hectic schedules. Between sports, clubs, and other after-school events it feels like you are being pulled in all directions. Considering that other parents are making the same hectic trek, there’s an opportunity to lighten the load. Carpooling.
Not only can carpooling free up your schedule, but it can also help you save on gas. (Definitely a bonus!) Follow these tips to set up your carpool experience for success.
1. Find your carpool buddies.
It’s best to carpool within a trusted network of fellow parents. Don’t worry about coordinating around age or gender. The goal is to make your life easier and not simply offer car time for your child and his bestie.
That being said, start with your child’s friend group and see who might be joining the same activities. If they live nearby, that could be a match. Otherwise, ask the coach or coordinator for a parent contact list and reach out to those who live close to you. Also talk to parents at activity pickup, at school PTO meetings, or at your local religious services. Even friends of friends might be good carpool candidates.
Pro Tip: Pick the right number of kids for your carpool. Younger children need more attention and so their carpools should be smaller.
2. Set the schedule.
It’s important to make a set schedule so that kids aren’t left waiting. Using a carpool app can help you organize, and some apps even come with reminders. Some popular apps include Carpool-kids, Waze Carpool, and GoKid. You can even use Signup Genius or Google sheets. (If you use Google, you will want to download the sheets app to your smartphone.) You also can do an email or text chain.
Choose the system that works for your group and make sure everyone is comfortable with it. Also, it’s important to make sure you can communicate with other parents in the case of an emergency, accident, sickness, or unexpected change of plans. (Anyone who has forgotten an early dismissal day knows the importance of communication.)
Pro Tip: Post a copy of the carpool schedule near the door and include it in your child’s backpack. This way, he or she knows who is picking up.
3. Set expectations.
If possible, schedule an in-person meeting with your carpool participants. Not only does it make it easier to create the schedule, it helps you come to an agreement on rules and expectations. For example, how many minutes late is too late? What is the policy if you’re picking up a child who is not ready? Verify schedules and conflicts. Determine food allergies if any. Inquire about health-related concerns.
Pro Tip: Important point for discussion: Don’t let anyone outside of the carpool cover the route (e.g. babysitter, grandma) unless every parent is aware and agrees.
4. Stay safe.
Don’t forget to discuss the safety rules. For example, children must enter and exit the vehicle from the curbside. Only kids who are 13 and older may ride in the front passenger seat. Students who do not meet the necessary height and weight requirements must ride in a booster seat.
For carpools, consider harness-style options that move the seatbelt down, rather than boost the child up, such as the WhizRider. These lightweight accessories can travel with your child and fit right in their backpack for easy access for carpooling.
5. Do a practice run.
You know the route to your child’s activities but you may not be familiar with the addresses where you are dropping your carpool kids. Do a practice run with the kids. Take a trip to the local ice cream parlor or head to the library. This will help you to work out any issues before you start.
6. Bring snacks.
If you’re shuttling kids from school to after-school activities, snacks and drinks are a must. Even if you’re just taking them home, you’ll find that food and drinks help to keep them happy. Greet kids with healthy portable snacks that don’t create too much mess. Chilled water in reusable bottles make a great choice because if they’re spilled, there won’t be too much mess. Keep any food allergies in mind when selecting snacks; alternatively, you can ask parents to pack their own child’s treat.
Pro Tip: Have a cleanup pack on hand that includes paper towels and baby wipes. Put a trash bag in the backseat where the kids can put their trash.
7. Don’t forget entertainment.
Even a short car ride can be made more enjoyable when the occupants are entertained. This may include car karaoke with their favorite songs or taking turns reading aloud from a joke book. You also may want to provide games with magnetic pieces. Just make sure you have a place to store them, such as with a backseat organizer. For older kids with different musical preferences, headphones work well as they listen or watch on their devices. Finally, if you’re going to be waiting in the car, keep the things that entertain you. Bring a favorite book, a relaxing playlist, and a charger, and enjoy some much-deserved quiet time.
8. Check in with your child.
Things may be going well on your end, but you don’t know what happens when the other parents are driving. Check-in periodically with your child. Get his or her perspective on the carpool, and make adjustments as needed. It’s also a chance to determine if you need to rethink participating in a carpool.
Finally, if you’re transporting precious cargo, you’ll want to ensure that your vehicle is carpool ready. Keep your car well maintained. Protect your vehicle with the right insurance for peace of mind.
Safe travels.
This article is furnished by California Casualty, providing auto and home insurance to educators, law enforcement officers, firefighters, and nurses. Get a quote at 1.866.704.8614 or www.calcas.com.
Letting go is one of the hardest things we can do as parents. After all, we want to be there every step of the way—and that includes making sure our children get safely to school and home again.
But there comes a time when we step back, and send them on their way with pride (and just a little anxiety). How do we know when the right time is? Here’s some guidance on determining when and how to let your child walk or bike to school alone.
First, let’s remember the benefits.
Walking or biking alone to school is a milestone in growing up. It’s good for your child and it’s good for you. Here’s why.
It’s great exercise. It helps keep your child moving every day.
It gives your child a sense of independence and responsibility.
It boosts your child’s self-confidence.
It gives them a chance to follow rules and make good decisions.
It allows bonding time with friends, including a chance to make new ones.
It limits your family’s carbon footprint.
It frees your time so that you can do something else.
How do you know if your child is ready?
Every child is different. And not every school route is the same. Taking into account your child’s age and maturity, and the difficulty of the route, you can make a determination. As their parent, you are the best person to know if your child is ready and if walking or biking to school is safe. If you live in an area of high crime, you may want to reconsider letting your child walk or ride alone.
If you’re looking for guidelines, healthychildren.org (from the American Academy of Pediatrics) notes that most children are not ready to walk or bike alone until the fifth grade or about age 10. That’s as long as they can follow rules, show good judgment, and not be easily distracted.
Prepare for the moment.
The important thing is you don’t have to jump right into having your child walk or bike alone to school. You can put in the necessary preparation to make sure that he or she will be able to do so safely. Here’s how you can prepare.
Educate your child on street signs and what they mean. You can do this when you’re driving in the car as well as walking around the neighborhood.
Establish and practice the rules for crossing the street. Look left, then right, then left again. Then, cross. Never cross in the middle of the block.
Explain to your child that cars share the road with bikes and pedestrians. Show your child how to be aware of vehicles wherever they may be.
Remind your child to stay on the sidewalk and out of the street unless crossing at a crosswalk.
Remind your child to walk his/her bicycle across intersections.
Test the route by walking it with your child. Let your child lead the way so you are confident that he/she knows where to go.
Practice locking and/or storing the bike at school.
Prepare for an emergency.
You want to prepare your child for any possibility from getting lost to getting a flat tire to stranger danger. Role-playing helps your child practice the skills needed.
Point out the best people to ask for help if lost.
Practice having your child walk his/her bike the whole way to school and back in the event of a flat.
All of these tactics will help keep your child safe wherever they are, and not just walking or biking alone to school.
When your child is ready to walk or bike to school without you, follow these tips.
See if your child can walk or bike with a friend or group of friends. Some communities have started a walking school bus or bicycle train to help children travel safely.
Consider getting your child a basic cell phone. Have your child check in with you when he/she arrives at school, and when he/she is leaving. However, make sure they know not to text while walking or biking. That will distract them from their surroundings and put them in danger.
Brightly colored jackets and backpacks are most easily seen by cars, so dress your child accordingly.
Before your child gets on his/her bike, check the air and tire pressure, and test the brakes.
Have a backup plan for getting to school in inclement weather, such as riding the school bus.
This article is furnished by California Casualty, providing auto and home insurance to educators, law enforcement officers, firefighters, and nurses. Get a quote at 1.866.704.8614 or www.calcas.com.
You hear sirens and see flashing lights. There’s only one thing to do. Pull over.
There’s a reason you’re moving out of the way.
Even a few minutes delay can be a matter of life and death when you’re traveling by ambulance. The same holds true if a first responder can’t get to the scene of an accident, a fire, or disaster. Emergency vehicles need to get to the place where they can help people. If you’re on the road where they are traveling, you can help them get there by giving them a clear path to their destination.
Your moving car is dangerous to stopped vehicles.
You may have noticed a police officer, a roadside worker, a car pulled over on the side of the road, or even a wreck. Driving by them or rubbernecking at high rates of speed is dangerous. According to the National Highway Safety Administration (NHTSA), “making a traffic or emergency stop on the side of our nation’s highways is one of the most dangerous things law enforcement officers do in the line of duty.”
Every two weeks, a first responder or roadside worker loses his/her life, reported AAA. The agency recommends slowing down to a speed that is 10-20 mph slower than the speed limit and changing lanes to be further away.
Pay attention so you’ll hear and see emergency vehicles.
If you have the radio blaring, if you’re texting, or otherwise distracted, you may not see or hear an emergency vehicle approaching. You might not know that you have to pull over until that vehicle is right there. Not only is that stressful, but your quick actions might also cause a collision.
Here’s what to do when you see lights and hear sirens.
Put on your turn signal and slow down.
Check your mirrors and make sure the way is clear.
Move over to the shoulder and park your vehicle.
Wait until the emergency vehicle has passed. You will want to stay at least 500 feet behind it.
Check your mirrors, put on your turn signal and carefully pull back into traffic.
Importantly, don’t slam on your brakes. Don’t travel through a red light. Don’t stop in the middle of your lane. And never try to outrun an emergency vehicle.
Where you are, and the direction you’re traveling, matter.
Emergency vehicles don’t always come from behind you. Sometimes they are traveling in the opposite direction, on the other side of the road. Do you still have to move over? Check your state laws for the rules regarding moving over for emergency vehicles.
If you are traveling in a high-speed lane, and there is no room to stop, slow down.
If you are traveling in the left lane, go right as traffic on the right moves over.
If the emergency vehicle is traveling on the opposite side of a divided highway, you don’t need to pull over.
If the emergency vehicle is traveling on the opposite side of the road, and there is no divider, pull over to your right. That vehicle may need to use your lane to get by.
Every state in the U.S. has a move-over law. Most people don’t know about it. Check your state’s law and learn what you need to do to keep everyone safe.
This article is furnished by California Casualty, providing auto and home insurance to educators, law enforcement officers, firefighters, and nurses. Get a quote at 1.866.704.8614 or www.calcas.com.
It’s summertime and temperatures are quickly on the rise!
Extreme heat is more than an inconvenience though; it is a health hazard. It’s extremely important that we do all that we can to avoid overheating and that we all know the symptoms of heat-related illnesses like:
Heat Cramps
These are muscular pain or spasms in the leg or abdomen – often the first sign of trouble. Getting a person to a cooler place and hydrating them with water or sports drinks usually alleviates them.
Heat Exhaustion
This is much more severe with symptoms of:
Cool moist pale, ashen or flushed skin
Headache
Dizziness
Nausea
Weakness
Exhaustion
Treatment includes moving to a cooler place with circulating air, remove or loosen clothing and apply cool, wet cloths or towels to the skin. Spraying a person with water helps as well as giving small amounts of fluids such as water, fruit juice, milk or sports drinks. If symptoms persist, call medical help immediately
Heat Stroke
This is a life-threatening condition. Symptoms include high body temperature (above 103 degrees); hot, red skin; rapid and strong pulse; confusion, and possible unconsciousness. Immediately:
Call 911
Move the person to a cooler place
Cool them with water by immersing them or spraying them
Cover them with ice packs or bags of ice
Children and Pets are at Risk
Don’t forget your precious cargo when the weather heats up. We think that it will never happen to our families, unfortunately, each year an average of 37 children and many hundreds of pets die from being left in hot cars. The majority is the result of a parent or caregiver who forgot the child or pet was in the vehicle. Even on a 70-degree day, the inside temperature can climb to a dangerous 110 degrees.
New technology and apps are being developed to warn parents of a child left in a car or truck, and the 2017 GMC Acadia will be the first vehicle with a built-in sensor that alerts drivers to check the back seat for children or pets left in the car. Until these are tested and more readily available, safety groups have mounted campaigns to prevent child heatstroke danger with these warning tips:
Never leave a child or pet in an unattended vehicle
Keep vehicles locked so children can’t climb in
Always check the back seat before leaving the vehicle
Place a stuffed toy in the car seat when it’s unoccupied and move it to the front seat as a visible reminder when you put a child in the seat
Put a purse, briefcase or other important items in the back seat with your infant or young child
Alert childcare facilities to notify you if your child fails to show up
Call 911 if you see a child alone in a vehicle and take action if you see they are in distress or unresponsive (break a window and remove them to a cool place and wait for emergency responders)
Personal Safety
When extremely hot weather hits, these are things you can do to alleviate the danger:
Drink plenty of water and rehydrating sports drinks
Avoid strenuous work during the heat of the day
Dress in loose-fitting, lightweight and light-colored clothing
Stay indoors as much as possible
Never leave children or pets in a vehicle
Go to a basement or lowest floor of a house or building if there is no air conditioning
Consider spending the warmest part of the day in cool public buildings such as libraries, schools, movie theaters, malls, and other community facilities
Spend time at a community pool or water park
Check on family, friends, and neighbors (especially the very young or old) who do not have air conditioning
Home Prep
Ready.gov has an extensive list of recommendations to help keep your home cool when the temperature rises:
Install window air conditioners snugly and insulate them
Check air conditioning ducts for proper insulation
Install temporary window reflectors (such as aluminum foil-covered cardboard) to reflect heat back outside
Cover windows that receive direct sunlight with drapes, shades, awnings or louvers
Keep storm windows up
Automobile Prep
Your car takes a beating in extreme heat. It’s a good reminder to:
Test your battery
Check your fluids – oil, coolant, and wiper fluid
Get your air conditioning serviced
Inspect all hoses and belts for cracks or tears
Carry extra water or coolant
This article is furnished by California Casualty, providing auto and home insurance to teachers, law enforcement officers, firefighters, and nurses. Get a quote at 1.800.800.9410 or www.calcas.com.
If you are like the millions of American’s who are hitting the road this season to travel in a Recreational Vehicle (RV), follow these 3 key steps to keep you safe.
1. Before You Hit the Road in Your RV:
Check the exterior for cracks and missing or damaged seals
Inspect and test the battery
Examine and pressurize the tires
Replace filters and replenish brake, coolant, transmission, hydraulic and washer fluids
Clean, inspect and refill LP gas lines and appliances
Test carbon monoxide and smoke detectors
Flush and fill the water system looking for leaks, clarity, and drinkability
Check batteries and that all appliances are working
Inspect sewer hoses and waste tank valves for cracks or sticking
When you are far from home it is also vital that you have the right equipment on hand that can get you out of any situation.
Surge protector for variable campground electrical systems
Drinking water approved hose
Matches or a lighter
Portable chargers
Food, water, and essential groceries
Pressure regulator and water filter for variable campsite water pressures and contaminates
A set of tools
Extra clothing and blankets
Laser temperature tester to detect overheated brakes, tires, and axles
Emergency first aid kit
The last step in making sure you are all prepared before you travel is making sure you have RV Insurance.
3. The Proper Coverage for Your RV
California Casualty has been providing RV Insurance for over 40 years. Our RV Insurance program is designed to accommodate almost all recreational vehicles from pop-ups to coaches. We cover motor homes up to $120,000 in value and our partner market covers up to $500,000 in value.
Coverages Include:
Total Loss Replacement
Emergency Vacation Expense
Disappearing Deductibles
Full Timer’s Package
Replacement Cost Personal Effects
24-Hour Roadside Assistance
Windshield Coverage
Free Pet Injury
If you would like to add RV coverage to your policy call our Sales Department at 1-844-854-7265. For more information on RV Insurance Coverage, please contact our Customer Service Department at 1-800-704-8614 or visit www.calcas.com.
This article is furnished by California Casualty, providing auto and home insurance to educators, law enforcement officers, firefighters, and nurses. Get a quote at 1.866.704.8614 or www.calcas.com.
