If you have a smart phone..... the 911 issue....

smiling76 · October 2012

So I have an iphone--and of course it locks itself after just a few seconds so I have to hit the little button at the bottom (I have the otter box on it)--and then slide the screen so I can use it. THEN I have to find the phone icon.....hit "keypad" and then dial 911. I know I could do it--but how the heck do you teach your LO's to do it???

Is there some secret I need to know (I'm seriously not tech savvy AT ALL). I'd love to learn as he's really in to the 911 for emergencies thing and we don't have a landline at home. So this is it.

sunnybrook. · October 2012

That was a concern of mine and I never did find a creative solution. I also considered the fact that I can't find my phone most of the time if I needed to call 911 and that I leave my LOs with a babysitter...what if she forgot her phone or it wasn't charged? Even if my toddlers could call 911 from a smartphone, they would need to know the address since the exact location doesn't quickly display to dispatch. I decided the cost of a landline was worth the peace of mind. We have a very basic landline so it doesn't cost very much.

Angela814 · October 2012

If you have a working phone plugged into a land line, you can call 911 with it even without service.

On our iPhones, if you have a pass code, there's an option to make an emergency phone call. It doesn't look like there's that option without it. I'm thinking at the point where DC would actually be able to dial 911, they'd be old enough to unlock the phone and find the phone icon. My 2yo can unlock my phone. Since she doesn't know her numbers yet, I figure it doesn't matter if she can get to the phone icon or not.

2-Step · October 2012

We have a landline for this very reason. Any to teach the kids how to use a phone in general because smartphones are hard to use for little ones.

Temp994124375009771 · October 2012

You don't need a plan to be able to call 911 from a landline.

If you don't have an old landline phone buy the cheapest one you can find and plug it in. Then you can work on teaching LO to call 911 from it and the dispatcher will automatically know where they are calling from.

We don't really need our landline plan but I'm keeping it because when DD is old enough to have her little friends call her I don't want them calling my cell phone to talk all the time. No thank you, this phone is for me!

smiling76 · October 2012

ChicagoLaura:

You don't need a plan to be able to call 911 from a landline.

If you don't have an old landline phone buy the cheapest one you can find and plug it in. Then you can work on teaching LO to call 911 from it and the dispatcher will automatically know where they are calling from.

We don't really need our landline plan but I'm keeping it because when DD is old enough to have her little friends call her I don't want them calling my cell phone to talk all the time. No thank you, this phone is for me!

I had no idea about the not needing service for 911 from a landline.

QUESTION--has anyone ever 'practiced' by truly dialing 911 with their child? I know that's a bad thing to do--but wondered what happens if you do??

Cherryblossoms07 · October 2012

I haven't practiced calling 911 with DD yet but I don't think it would take much to teach her to do it on our smart phone and she is 2 1/2, almost 3. The main reason I haven't taught her yet is because I don't want her actually calling it unless it is an emergency and she is still much to young to understand that concept. DD is playing with our phones all the time and has figured them out to the point to know how to turn them on and unlock them, make calls, get into my gallery to look at photos and movies, and get into apps to get to her apps on my phone. She has called daddy and grandpa a couple of times now without my knowing it. She has even figured out her own way to turn on our phones if they turn off - plugging it into it's charger (thus how she has made phone calls without my knowing). It took us awhile to figure out that was why she kept taking our phones to the charger. It doesn't take them long to figure it all out if you let them play with them for awhile.

If you have an old smart phone you could let LO play with it/learn from it. We ended up giving DD one of DH's old smart phones for her apps and she has become even more efficient at using our phones since then.

AmandaP678 · October 2012

You might be surprised at how easily your LO can use your phone? I have an Iphone and my 3 year old has been using mine for months and can probably use it better than I can.

sucredee · October 2012

smiling76:

QUESTION--has anyone ever 'practiced' by truly dialing 911 with their child? I know that's a bad thing to do--but wondered what happens if you do??

my DH's kids both managed to dial 911 at one point and time (they are in college now so it has been a while). Both times the cops did show up just to make sure everything was OK.

groovygrl · October 2012

if your iphone is locked w/ a passcode, you need to slide the slide thingee & 'emergency call' is listed on the bottom right of hte keypad to enter your passcode. I actually fear my kids calling it when they're messing around w/ the phone.

I have practiced on the cordless (we also have a landline) w/ my daughter, but not truly calling, just her dialing the 9-1-1 and telling her she would press the 'talk' button to dial it. I have no idea if she'd be able to do it. I have not tackled w/ my son (they're both a little over 3) b/c he doesnt seem like he'd get it, but I suppose I should talk to him too.

tmbuchmann · October 2012

Can you make one of the icons a shortcut on the opening screen for a phone number? So I have an android, and I could have on the home screen a shortcut to a person's phone number and all I have to do is select it and it automatically dials it. Not sure if IOS does this too.

QueSrah · October 2012

sucredee:
smiling76:

QUESTION--has anyone ever 'practiced' by truly dialing 911 with their child? I know that's a bad thing to do--but wondered what happens if you do??

my DH's kids both managed to dial 911 at one point and time (they are in college now so it has been a while). Both times the cops did show up just to make sure everything was OK.

If for some reason you accidentally dial 911 when it's not an emergency, please stay on the line long enough to tell the dispatcher that you don't have an emergency so they don't have to send someone out to your house. And teach your kids not to play around with dialing 911. If you want to role play with your child, it might make more sense to practise having conversations about telling what the emergency is and where you're located (if the kid has to call from a cell phone) rather than tying up the 911 dispatchers' time.

Jaxmom11 · October 2012

This doesn't help with the smartphone issue, but my brother and I had one of these when we were kids so that we could make an emergency call or call a family member. I plan to get one for DS soon.

https://www.amazon.com/Future-Call-FC-1007-FutureCall-Phone/dp/B000MG8BHQ/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1351362287&sr=8-2&keywords=photo+button+phone

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If you have a smart phone..... the 911 issue....

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