The Fire Drill

We executed a mock fire drill over the weekend. We've talked about safety with the kids and had a meeting place and a list of neighbors to visit and who next in case they aren't home and so on. We thought we'd cover all the bases, but nothing beats actually practicing, not just talking. So, Saturday we put the kids to bed - they were out cold in 11 minutes. We gave them just a few more and then turned out all the lights and set the smoke detector alarm off. And waited, and waited, and waited. Finally after about 45 seconds (a LONG time when there is a horrible loud beeping noise) Andrew said "turn it off it's waking me up". I went into his room and explained that was the whole point. Then we practiced unlocking the window, getting the screen off and I made him crawl out the window and run all the way to our designated meeting place and back. He got back to bed by the time Paul shook Nathan awake. He snapped that he was trying to sleep.

It was a good practice for many reasons, we realized in the pitch black of night, it's really hard to see and if they aren't careful, they'll make it out the window only to fall into the basement window wells. It was also good to know also that Nathan lands into a thorny holly berry bush that we've talked about pulling out for years - every better reason to now. Andrew also complained it was cold on his bare feet and we don't even have snow yet. At least they have a little idea what to expect, and we talked about not having toys on the floor to trip over, which might have sunk in...