Home phone and 911

ChrisG83 · August 2013

Do you have a landline at your house? If you don't do you plan on keeping your cell phone in a certain spot should your LO have to call 911 when they are older? What age will you teach them to dial 911?Thoughts?

lady dixneuf · August 2013

I've thought about this a lot. We do not have a landline and after Sandy that was a big wake up call. Not only could we not charge our phones but we had no cell service either.

I also worry about my SD and this situation at her mom's house. Crazy stuff happens there. What if she needed to call us or 911 and her mom wouldn't lend her the phone. This is likely to happen. We've discussed getting her her own phone but we'd never see it again once it went over there.

Mrs.G123 · August 2013

My dd knows how to call 911. She has known since age 3. In light of recent events especially I always keep my phone on me. @lady dixneuf can your sd use call phone from gmail if she has an emergency? Does she have a computer?

lady dixneuf · August 2013

they have a computer but it's not HER computer...I don't think she'd know how to do that.

PixelPosy · August 2013

We don't have a land line either, but will either add a line as a "house" phone or when she hits elementary age get her a child friendly cell that has simple pre-programmed numbers, including an emergency button.

I'm not sure what age we would discuss 911, but I remember seeing one of those amazing story shows where a toddler that wasn't yet able to talk was able to get help by dialing 911 when her caregiver collapsed. They also had a story about a dog trained to call 911.

Good point @lady dixneuf we would be in a bind with no cell service or electricity.

Ziegeficker · August 2013

I asked myself this question a few years ago, which is why we got a landline when I decided I didn't want a cellphone anymore. We have since ditched the landline and gone back to cellphones, and now it continues to cross my mind. I rarely know where my cellphone is, let alone can get to it in a timely fashion for an emergency. I need to remedy this.

LexiSophie55 · August 2013

We will be getting a land line when R is 3 ish.

No question.

navyandviolet · August 2013

When DD was about 15 months old I choked on a piece of bread. I was home alone and it was around 10 am. I started to lose consciousnesses and used my landline to dial 911. I was able to dislodge the bread using the Heimlich on a chair method but shortly afterwards the police arrived. They told me that the 911 operator could hear my child crying and me banging on the phone, (I had no voice to tell them what was wrong or where to go) the only reason they were able to get there so quickly if God forbid I hadn't been able to get the bolus out on my own was because of my landline. I will never get rid of it. A cell will take twice as long at least to locate where the emergency was taking place. That is my 2 cents, but based on the scariest moment of my life.

Oh nd we started teaching DD about dialing 911 soon after she began to recognize numbers/letters. We also began simple phone and address knowledge and simple fire safety and stranger danger at that time so shortly after age 2 to 2 1/2.

clrgrdfrk · August 2013

LexiSophie55 said:

We will be getting a land line when R is 3 ish.

No question.

This is what I am thinking. I do think about it a lot. I also worry if our nanny or baby sitter is without a phone.. What happens then?

Our nanny left her phone at home once and I actually left mine with her while I went to work. Not ideal and having a landline would fix that. Even if it gets used rarely, for my peace of mind I think it will be worth it.

Wally3 · August 2013

For some reason I believe that a line land can sail 911 even if you don't have service. If you just plug a simple one into the wall. We had a line land after ds1 was born but got so many wrong number calls and solicitors we got rid of it. I may get a phone to plug in just for 911.

Clovesjellybeans · August 2013

navy&violet said:

When DD was about 15 months old I choked on a piece of bread. I was home alone and it was around 10 am. I started to lose consciousnesses and used my landline to dial 911. I was able to dislodge the bread using the Heimlich on a chair method but shortly afterwards the police arrived. They told me that the 911 operator could hear my child crying and me banging on the phone, (I had no voice to tell them what was wrong or where to go) the only reason they were able to get there so quickly if God forbid I hadn't been able to get the bolus out on my own was because of my landline. I will never get rid of it. A cell will take twice as long at least to locate where the emergency was taking place. That is my 2 cents, but based on the scariest moment of my life.

Oh nd we started teaching DD about dialing 911 soon after she began to recognize numbers/letters. We also began simple phone and address knowledge and simple fire safety and stranger danger at that time so shortly after age 2 to 2 1/2.

@navy&violet OMG! this is the kind of thing that scares me half to death!! Thank God that worked out and you're ok...sooo scary!

ChrisG83 · August 2013

@navy&violet that is so scary. I am thinking it's time to get a landline. I am always losing my phone and my two stepsons might not be able to find it. Plus the couple times we have list power out phones didn't even work. The same thing happened to my mom in Texas.

Mrs.G123 · August 2013

Smart phones have gps.

lady dixneuf · August 2013

Just from my aforementioned exp last fall- when the power, etc. was out here it wasn't just that our phones died. The towers got knocked out (or somethhng) and there was almost no cell reception. I don't know why this was the case but even a fully charged cell was basically useless. That was why it was so scary.

Well that and the police were only responding to life threatening emergencies.

You'd need a non-electric landline that wasn't VOIP or somehow based on th net in this case. All old fashioned.

spinmerightround · August 2013

As a 911 dispatcher, PLEASE teach your kids to calmly give their address if they do have to call 911. If you call 911 from a cell phone, regardless of whether or not your phone has GPS, it will only show the dispatcher which tower the cell phone is hitting off of, which narrows it down to about a 2 mile radius (at best). I spent close to 45 minutes a few weeks ago on the phone with a guy who had been in a car accident and had no idea where he was, and had also injured his head and had an altered mental status. We somehow managed to piece together where he was based on where he last remembered being and were able to get the ambulance to him before the cell phone company was able to ping his phone's GPS.

Most landlines will come up with an address, unless you have a VoIP (voice over IP, i.e. Vonage) phone.

Stepping off the soapbox now...

CLLDLL · August 2013

piffle42 said:

We have a landline, always have. DS knows how to dial 911

This. We taught DS1 how to dial, when it's appropriate to call, and what our address is when he was around 3.5.

Home phone and 911

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