Welcome And Encouragement For Moms

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Hey ladies, welcome to the Single Mom's United podcast. If this is your first time joining, welcome. If you're a repeat listener, thank you for your loyalty. I so appreciate it. And hopefully, as I deliver my thoughts and comments regarding certain situations and previous episodes, that you've been able to absorb that and pay it forward to another single mom and encourage them. Because that's what this podcast is all about. It's encouraging the single mom, letting her know you made the right decision. You did. At first, you were probably frantic, like, oh my god, I'm pregnant, I'm pregnant. What should I do? And it probably wasn't easy, and he probably said it's not mine, or have an abortion, or something to that effect, but you made the decision. I'm keeping this child. So listen, ladies, virtual high five, fist bump, all of that. You go, girl, right? You made the right decision. You made the right decision. So kudos to you.

Why Emergency Prep Matters Now

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Alright, so today I want to talk about emergency or crises and how to handle an emergency or a crises. I watch the news, I watch it faithfully. That's how I know I'm old, right? Because I want to know what's going on. And I and there are times I get a little irritated when I miss the news because I want to know what's going on. When I do watch the news, I do see the crises that are currently happening in our neighborhoods, in our homes, and even abroad. But when I look at the news and I see the crises, fires, and the gun violence and so forth, how are we preparing our children? Are we teaching them how to handle an emergency, what to do when an emergency happens? Because they will, not mine, they will happen. While I'm ashamed to say it, but I'm gonna put a comma behind it. I did not prepare my kids for how to handle an emergency or a crisis. I did not, and I own that in my defense, I was never taught. And when I was growing up, you know, you dial zero. That tells you how old I am. Did learn like some first aid stuff in school related to choking and things like that. But what happens when the house is on fire? What happens when someone breaks into the house? What happens when you, mom, get sick and it's just you and the child or the kids there alone? How would they handle that? What would they do if you got sick? Hmm, something to think about,

Teach 911 Basics And Memorization

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right? Today's episode promises to be brief and to the point. My thoughts are this teach your children what to do in an emergency. When should you start teaching them? I'd say around the age of five. Now, some of your children are a lot smarter and can be taught earlier. It's whatever you feel comfortable with. But I would say at least around the age of five, you should be teaching them how to dial 911. What would constitute an emergency? Not to just be calling, just to be calling, but what would constitute an emergency? They need to know their address, they need to know their phone number. And I know we're out of that age of memorizing stuff because everything's in the phone now, but please, and I know GPS is out there, but it gets it wrong sometimes. GPS gets it wrong sometimes, so there's nothing like encouraging in making sure your child knows his or her address. They also should know your full name. Again, your mommy, your mom, mama, whatever you want to go by. But they ain't gonna call you by your first name. Uh at least my kids didn't, right? And and they knew better, right? But however, your children need to know your full name. So if you're Sally Jones, you say mommy's real name is Sally Jones. So if we ever get into an emergency and they ask you what my name is, okay, it's Sally Jones. Now that's the only time you can use my full name uh and get away with it is in an emergency. But they should know your full name. Okay, they should know the address, they should know the phone number. All of these things are important as it relates to a crises.

Fire Plans And Gun Violence Reality

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You know, I also saw in the news this week where complexes or a apartment caught on fire and it impacted other apartments, right? Because they're linked together. Again, what do you tell your children? How do you respond to these crises? Gunfire. Why is someone shooting? How do you explain that to your children? Oh, one person's mad at the other, and so they're deciding to shoot. Well, those bullets don't have a name on it, so it can hit what do you do? What does your child do? How do they protect themselves? And not just at school. I think the schools pretty much have it covered now. They have plans in place, and hopefully, your child can bring that home with them and say, can we implement this in our household? Encourage that single mom. If the school is taking the time to teach them what to do in a shooting situation, some of that can be extracted, applied to your household. Because some of the elements that they're teaching children about where to hide and what to do and so forth, that still can be applicable in your household. Take it. And matter of fact, I would even go a step further and not even rely on your child to bring it home. I would go to the school, talk to the principal. What are you teaching the children when there's an active shooter? How do they respond to that? And that is important because this is real life. Guns, shootings, murders, they're not happening just at a daily level. They're happening at a minute level. Every minute. Every minute. Imagine that. How do you prepare your children for that? This is one avenue, just one avenue you can take to help protect your home against gun violence. Because their children need to know how to protect themselves and they need to know how to respond. They need to know how to respond in these situations, especially if you are unable to respond. That's pretty much it, ladies. Teach your children how to respond in uh an emergency or a crisis. It's going to increase their education. They're going to be able to take this forward with them, not just at a young age, but at an adult age. Because guess what? When they have kids, they're going to have to pay that forward. They're going to have to educate them. And if they already know what to do in these situations, it won't be that difficult. So, ladies, I encourage you as an educator, yes, you are an educator, to educate your children about how to handle emergency situations.

Sex Trafficking And Unsafe Touches

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And then one final one, and then I really am done. Uh sex trafficking is real. And I don't know why they want to go after the baby so much. I guess because they're innocent. I assume it's something that is wrong. Um, children are being kidnapped and forced to do things that are just not okay. Period. It is not okay. You need to teach them about sex trafficking and unwanted touches. Again, I would put that up under an emergency because if you're touching me where I feel uncomfortable, that's not okay. It's not okay. So, mom, please do better than me. Do better than me. Teach your children, educate your children what to do in an emergency because long term and even short term, it's gonna pay off. Because remember, emotional scars will never go away. Physical scars, they heal, and you may see it depending on how big the scar is, but emotional scars will always be there. So help your children deal with these types of emotional scars that they may or will experience because each emergency is going to be different, each crisis is gonna be different. So teach them now, mom.

Finding Help And Paying It Forward

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And if you don't know, that's okay. That's okay. But there's Google. You can look it up, everything is out there. You can ask schools again to help fill in some of those gaps that you may not be aware of. Um, and I'm sure they would help you. You can also contact your local fire department, especially as it relates to fires, um, what to do in those situations. Back when I was growing up, um, I believe in school they said it was stop, drop, and roll. But they do go through these various activities to teach our children. I remember riding the school bus and we had to do a drill on the bus if something happened, um, if there was an accident. But we cannot put all of this onness on someone else. This belongs to you, mom. This belongs to you. All right. I hope you enjoyed today's episode. If you did, pay it forward. Tap that next single mom on the shoulder and say, Hey, go listen to Single Moms United Podcast. Wherever you listen to podcasts, Spotify, Apple, Pandora, Amazon, that's where you can find Single Moms United. All right. Give your child a hug. Encourage them this week. Thank you for joining, and we'll talk with you soon. Take care.