Emergency contact when you don't have friends?

[Anonymous]

Same boat. I also did a local and a non-local emergency contact. The local is a former coworker (was a coworker at the time) who has since moved from VA to MD, so not quite as local, but I still use her. Non-local is my brother because he always has his cell phone on him and has a child so presumably would have some idea of what to do in an emergency.

[Anonymous]

I have 2, my mom (in CA) and the wife of my partner's friend because she is a SAHM and lives close to day care. I don't know her well, but she is super nice and I trust her.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I disagree with many PPs and feel this should be someone with an actual ability to pick up your child. A friend of mine just asked me to do it because I WAH, so I said sure, but that I need a key to her house (as I know longer have babies or baby stuff anymore!).

They're more likely to use this contact because you can't get there in time for pick up (snow storm, horrible traffic, etc...), some type of emergency (natural disaster, etc...), or your kid is sick (they can't give fever meds but you or your contact can). Is there a SAHM on your street you can befriend? I know this is tough, but I'd encourage you to choose someone with an ability to show up.

FWIW, I've never had the school contact me to pick up another person's child. I have had friends/neighbors call me when they've been stuck in traffic or knew that they would be late to pick up their child - they let the school know that I would be picking the kid up and I had no problem doing that.

I would be worried if I got a call from the school w/o word from the parent first.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I disagree with many PPs and feel this should be someone with an actual ability to pick up your child.

Great. What if there is literally NO ONE?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I disagree with many PPs and feel this should be someone with an actual ability to pick up your child.

Great. What if there is literally NO ONE?

Can you join a church or moms group and try to meet some people (easier than it sounds sometimes I know)? Can you get a sitter for your child and ask the sitter to be the emergency contact?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I disagree with many PPs and feel this should be someone with an actual ability to pick up your child. A friend of mine just asked me to do it because I WAH, so I said sure, but that I need a key to her house (as I know longer have babies or baby stuff anymore!).

They're more likely to use this contact because you can't get there in time for pick up (snow storm, horrible traffic, etc...), some type of emergency (natural disaster, etc...), or your kid is sick (they can't give fever meds but you or your contact can). Is there a SAHM on your street you can befriend? I know this is tough, but I'd encourage you to choose someone with an ability to show up.

FWIW, I've never had the school contact me to pick up another person's child. I have had friends/neighbors call me when they've been stuck in traffic or knew that they would be late to pick up their child - they let the school know that I would be picking the kid up and I had no problem doing that.

I would be worried if I got a call from the school w/o word from the parent first.

Right. But this way, you're already authorized to pick up the child and it's just easier. Think of it this way: DH is out of town. You're stuck on the beltway in one of those freak snow storms where you can't get home for 3 hours. It's 6pm. Who would you call to pick up child? That's your emergency contact. If you honestly have no one, just ask the school to help you locate another parent whom you could see about making an arrangement with if this very unlikely situation occurred (maybe you can list each other?).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I disagree with many PPs and feel this should be someone with an actual ability to pick up your child. A friend of mine just asked me to do it because I WAH, so I said sure, but that I need a key to her house (as I know longer have babies or baby stuff anymore!).

They're more likely to use this contact because you can't get there in time for pick up (snow storm, horrible traffic, etc...), some type of emergency (natural disaster, etc...), or your kid is sick (they can't give fever meds but you or your contact can). Is there a SAHM on your street you can befriend? I know this is tough, but I'd encourage you to choose someone with an ability to show up.

FWIW, I've never had the school contact me to pick up another person's child. I have had friends/neighbors call me when they've been stuck in traffic or knew that they would be late to pick up their child - they let the school know that I would be picking the kid up and I had no problem doing that.

I would be worried if I got a call from the school w/o word from the parent first.

Right. But this way, you're already authorized to pick up the child and it's just easier. Think of it this way: DH is out of town. You're stuck on the beltway in one of those freak snow storms where you can't get home for 3 hours. It's 6pm. Who would you call to pick up child? That's your emergency contact. If you honestly have no one, just ask the school to help you locate another parent whom you could see about making an arrangement with if this very unlikely situation occurred (maybe you can list each other?).

When the kids were little, we used to get a separate form for people authorized to pick our child up from school. That is the form that I would have put the neighbor's name on. Emergency contact form I took to mean as a contact in case there was an emergency and dh & I couldn't be reached OR dh & I had never arrived to pick up our kids and had not sent someone else to pick them up which would have been very out of character for us...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I disagree with many PPs and feel this should be someone with an actual ability to pick up your child.

Great. What if there is literally NO ONE?

Can you join a church or moms group and try to meet some people (easier than it sounds sometimes I know)? Can you get a sitter for your child and ask the sitter to be the emergency contact?

We're members of a church. We still don't know anyone there. Moms groups only meet during the work day. A sitter? I wouldn't even know how to find one.

The point is, it's possible for people to simply not know anyone local. It's reality for a lot of people.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I disagree with many PPs and feel this should be someone with an actual ability to pick up your child.

Great. What if there is literally NO ONE?

Can you join a church or moms group and try to meet some people (easier than it sounds sometimes I know)? Can you get a sitter for your child and ask the sitter to be the emergency contact?

We're members of a church. We still don't know anyone there. Moms groups only meet during the work day. A sitter? I wouldn't even know how to find one.

The point is, it's possible for people to simply not know anyone local. It's reality for a lot of people.

O.k. but you came from somewhere before this town. Is there NO ONE out there anywhere - either a relative or old friend that could serve as your emergency contact? And as far as having a back up to pick your child up from school, maybe try talking to the school or even your church office.

If you live in a neighborhood maybe post a request for sitter recommendations on your listserv.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I disagree with many PPs and feel this should be someone with an actual ability to pick up your child. A friend of mine just asked me to do it because I WAH, so I said sure, but that I need a key to her house (as I know longer have babies or baby stuff anymore!).

They're more likely to use this contact because you can't get there in time for pick up (snow storm, horrible traffic, etc...), some type of emergency (natural disaster, etc...), or your kid is sick (they can't give fever meds but you or your contact can). Is there a SAHM on your street you can befriend? I know this is tough, but I'd encourage you to choose someone with an ability to show up.

FWIW, I've never had the school contact me to pick up another person's child. I have had friends/neighbors call me when they've been stuck in traffic or knew that they would be late to pick up their child - they let the school know that I would be picking the kid up and I had no problem doing that.

I would be worried if I got a call from the school w/o word from the parent first.

Right. But this way, you're already authorized to pick up the child and it's just easier. Think of it this way: DH is out of town. You're stuck on the beltway in one of those freak snow storms where you can't get home for 3 hours. It's 6pm. Who would you call to pick up child? That's your emergency contact. If you honestly have no one, just ask the school to help you locate another parent whom you could see about making an arrangement with if this very unlikely situation occurred (maybe you can list each other?).

When the kids were little, we used to get a separate form for people authorized to pick our child up from school. That is the form that I would have put the neighbor's name on. Emergency contact form I took to mean as a contact in case there was an emergency and dh & I couldn't be reached OR dh & I had never arrived to pick up our kids and had not sent someone else to pick them up which would have been very out of character for us...

+1. Our DC daycare has a separate form to list who's authorized to pick up the child. I have a daycare mom friend listed because logistically it makes sense that she could just get both kids if DH and I got stuck somewhere. Though we use an in-home daycare, so realistically I think I'd just ask the owner to keep her and pay for babysitting (she regularly babysits the daycare kids on nights and weekends anyways, so this wouldn't be groundbreaking).

Neither of us travel for work, so I have a hard time imagining a situation where we'd both be unavailable to pick up a sick child. If there was a freak snowstorm, wouldn't everyone be equally unable to travel?

[Anonymous]

How many times has the Speaker of the House become President? This about the frequency with which the THIRD level of emergency contact will be needed.

It can honestly be anyone. I can't imagine this being a real issue since everyone has cell phones.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:How many times has the Speaker of the House become President? This about the frequency with which the THIRD level of emergency contact will be needed.

It can honestly be anyone. I can't imagine this being a real issue since everyone has cell phones.

Ha. It actually happened to us once. I was literally maybe 20 minutes late to pick up my older elementary kid. The school tried calling my home phone but I was in my car. They called and left a message on dh's work phone. Didn't try calling our cell phones for whatever reason. And they wound up calling #3 who just so happened to be Grandma. By that point, I had realized that I was late, raced to the school, where I found my kiddo waiting to be picked up. I had to hurry and call Grandma because she was on her way out the door...

Glad that I put my mom down then some random person!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Another military family here. I lie on these forms. I have no friends and no local family. We don't know our neighbors. I work from home, so my coworkers aren't local either.
In a real emergency, my parents are 3 hours away by plane and can afford the ticket.

I think these requests are stupid and demoralizing.

I agree. I would have to fight not to fill in these forms as for a long time we had no one. Nobody really looks anyway so I started giving the phone number of a faraway relative.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Another military family here. I lie on these forms. I have no friends and no local family. We don't know our neighbors. I work from home, so my coworkers aren't local either.
In a real emergency, my parents are 3 hours away by plane and can afford the ticket.

I think these requests are stupid and demoralizing.

I agree. I would have to fight not to fill in these forms as for a long time we had no one. Nobody really looks anyway so I started giving the phone number of a faraway relative.

My oldest will be 18 soon. Can I put the oldest down as the EC for our younger kids?

[Anonymous]

Yes of course!