Teaching Hadley about surviving the cold

So in response to the 6 year old that died Thursday morning from the -40 temps in Bemidji I feel horrible for those that loved her. Maybe the mom didn't even know it was that cold out. Who knows but reading that she was dressed for the weather makes me realize that the mom was prepared. I am not sure how their morning routine goes but on that day it wasn't routine at all. It breaks my heart and even if someone was at fault who am I to judge. It already happened and blame won't change anything.

Last night on Facebook I saw a post to the likes of "where were her parents?" I just ignored it. I also saw a post of a shared message. It was a message calling for action. To sum it up, it stated something like, ask your kid what they would do if they were in the cold? We and the schools teach our children what to do when a tornado strikes or a fire starts but we don't talk about cold weather survival.

So this morning I asked Hadley about what she would do if the bus dropped her off from school and the door to the house was locked. She said, "I would call for mom to let me in." I then said, "well mommy and daddy aren't home. For some reason there was a mix-up and you got on the bus when you were supposed to go somewhere else and now you are home and the door is locked." She said, "I would go back on the bus." This answer was very good, it made me happy but I said, "the bus is already gone. They don't usually wait around to see if the kids are inside." She looked a little puzzled and said, "I would probably have a key to the car, the white car, and I would go start the car and drive it to town and buy a phone to call you." I smiled and said, "honey you are too short to drive a car. Your legs won't reach the peddles and you will have a hard time seeing out the window. Plus, you probably wouldn't have money to buy a phone." This is where I took a break from asking her what she would do. I now explained to her that it was so cold outside. It was windy and cold. I said that our bodies can only handle extreme temperatures for so long. I asked her what she thought would happen to her if she were outside for say as long as a Dora episode in this cold windy weather. She said, "I would blow away." I said, "yes you could blow away to heaven." She looked at me and her blue eyes were huge. I again explained the temperature idea to her letting her know that even if it was too hot outside her body could get hurt from the sun, heat and warmth. I told her that our bodies are supposed to be at or near 98.6 degrees to stay functioning properly. I said if our body temperature dips down too cold or spikes way up that we could die or get really sick. So now I asked her again what would you do if you were outside in the cold and you couldn't get into the house and she didn't have an answer. I told her this was an emergency. Think outside of what you are supposed to do. This is where Robert joined the conversation. I caught him up while Hadley was listening. And, I mentioned quietly to Robert that this is where I am going to tell her to go to the neighbors house. I am not sure if she heard. I don't think so because after I reminded her again that this was an emergency and Robert said something like you need to get inside. She said, "I would find a friend like Nevaeh to help me." I said, "yes that is something you could do but Nevaeh isn't probably going to be near by. You have to think of those near you." Then she said, "I would go through the snow with my snow pants on and walk over to Joans house." We both said yes and we both told her to pound on the door hard and loud so Joan could hear her outside. Then we asked what would you do if Joan wasn't home. She was silent and looked outside the door window towards the other neighbors house. She said, "I would go to the neighbors house and she pointed." We said yes you would go to Bruce and Bev's house. Then we asked again what if they weren't home. She pointed to the other neighbors house and we shook our heads up and down. And that was it. She was done listening and learning, she ran off to play with her sister.

I made coffee and cleaned up the kitchen and wrote this blog and all the while I can see why we give our 5 and 6 year old cell phones and teach them how to use them. And, I am thinking about wherever we move too I am going to make damn well sure I meet the neighbors.