to be panicking a bit about potential emergency

[1wokeuplikethis]

I'm freaking out a little bit as I am solely responsible for my 18 month old daughter over the next few days as my husband is away. The days are fine but I'm panicking slightly about night time emergencies.

For instance, if we have a fire in the night we have a fire plan should we be unable to get down the stairs. But this only really works with both of us there to get our toddler into the low roof.

Anyway, the main thing I'm panicking about is if we get burgled or someone gets in the house. None of our doors lock in the house, so if this happens, should I phone 999 and then go into my lo's room (she would wake which would alert potential burger/murderer that we are in that room) or should I get out of the house & then phone police?

I want to have a plan in place rather than trying to think on the spot at that time should it happen.

So, do you have A Plan in an emergency? What would you do if home alone when something like the above happened?

I always take my mobile up to bed if my DH is away. I know in an emergency I would grab a phone and get to the kids then get them out. I would probably get injured or have to break windows in the process, but my instinct is that I would do the right thing.

Just take sensible precautions, but the likelihood is that nothing will happen, so try not to worry.

Oh DOH, I completely misunderstood

Thanks for your messages everyone. Yes I'm a Virgo (that made me laugh) and naturally very anxious- I over-think/worry and have been told this many MANY times by my family. But I've always been that way so it's kind of just me.

As pp said, as long as I have a plan it calms me and I'm less likely to worry. In actual emergencies I'm very level-headed and its only afterwards that panic sets in. As another pp said, when you're used to having another adult around it is quite daunting to suddenly become solely responsible. The replies here have definitely helped especially regarding burglars being put off by noises- I hadn't thought of it lie that (I do like to wind myself up it seems).

I think it's really important to have a fire plan and go over it when your children are old enough. My dad was a fireman and we were so aware of fire safety growing up its rubbed off on me. And when my daughter is old enough I'll ensure she knows not to 'hide' in the wardrobe or anywhere as sadly this is what many small children do.

I am looking forward to the 'peace' and I'm sure everything will be fine, I haven't got a sense of impending doom, I think I'm just being practical and probably over cautious!

Draw yourself up a little list which you can check off - of the 'Lock External doors, Lock windows, Check plugs turned off at wall if they can be' etc etc variety. Check your mobile is charged and by your bed.

Those sorts of things are just prudent 'putting the house to bed' things and writing them down isn't a disastrous thing if you might forget them.

Then have a good sleep. You'll be fine.

I understand the anxiety, my H works away every week and one of the things I hate about it is that with three children, the chances of me being able to get them all out myself in case of a fire are slim. It's not something I worry much about though, just something I don't like. I'm pretty good on fire safety, but the comment about children hiding has made me realise I need to talk to my kids more about what they would need to do in case of an emergency.

Same here, LizzieMint - we also need to talk to our DC about what to do and what not to do. FWIW, all my plans involve getting to the DC ASAP - then go from there, whether it's barricading the doors or breaking the windows to escape.

HateSpiders I've reported your very tasteless joke

The fire brigade told us the same as a pp.

If the route downstairs and outside isn't safe then we should stay in a front room with the window open and the door shut and with towels or dressing gowns around the bottom. When we call for help we would be asked how many people there are and then we can say where we'll be.

I found this very reassuring.

I'm not sure about the burglary one,but I can tell you when I had my first I had PND when she was small and one of my symptoms was 'hyper vigilance' essentially worrying about and planning ahead for lots of unlikely scenarios.
This may or may not be an issue for you,but what I actually intended to say but went off on a tangent was that we had the fire brigade out to do a home safety check. They asked what our escape route was,I started to go through going out the window DH lowering baby to me etc. The fireman said 'can I stop you there?Why does everyone always start talking about going out the window?' then he explained that if you keep your internal doors closed at night and have smoke alarms then you have enough time generally to walk out your front door-as fires extremely unlikely to start in hall given lack of electronic appliances etc, and if for some reason you can't go downstairs and out front door even if you go into your room and close door,call fire brigade and put towel/dressing gown something at gap at bottom of door the response time for fire brigade means they will reach you before too much smoke enters room. The main important thing is to have a working smoke alarm and close your doors.
Hope that helps!

Oops cross posted with above who was much more succinct!

And sorry, yes to clarify I did mean no internal doors lock in my house. Obviously the main entry doors all lock.

Really glad that ppl have mentioned barricading in front room with towels under door in case of a fire if the stairs are inaccessible, I hadn't thought of that. It makes much more sense. Although the upstairs front windows only open at the tops- like a small rectangle window, not the whole one third. But I'm sure the Fire brigade know how to deal with that. And yes we have a working smoke alarm.

And yes, I have a zombie plan. And a bombings/street attack style plan too. No earthquake plan yet though.

DH used to work a lot off nights - well we both do , so I was used to being alone , and if he wasn't on nights , I usually was ! We have a fire plan with a couple of exits in case one is unusable , and I sleep with my mobile fully charged and under my pillow .

In the case of burglars , a decoy handbag by the front door isn't a bad idea at all . I've got one with a false set of keys in it as well , as what tends to happen is they don't actually want to spend all that much time in your house if they know it's likely to be occupied . That's why so many more residential burglaries happen during the day rather than at night . So they get in , grab what they can get , and go as soon as they can , and if challenged , they almost always just do a runner . In nearly twenty years I could count the number of people who have been attacked in their own home at night when I've been on duty on probably just about ten fingers . So if they grab my decoy handbag with those nice rattly keys which include a car key but not my real one , then by the time they get back outside and realise they can't steal the car , the odds are very very high they won't come back . Most people tend to wake up when they hear them shut the door in my experience.

But do you have a zombie plan, Plomino ? (I'm rather intrigued by the number of posters who apparently do!)

Ah the zombie plan .

Absolutely . It's called 'let's send the probationers '........

Ha, I knew you were a Virgo the second I read you post.

Im one too.

Lets never live together, our house will be very, very clean but with hundred locks, and twenty smoke alarms per room, a base ball bat -just in case and a good few fire extinguishers.

I'm a single parent to four children, and I have had to totally re-evaluate my fire emergency plan. One thing I have done is to buy these, and I keep them in a handy place in both the kids bedrooms, my room and the landing.

www.thesafetysupplycompany.co.uk/p/4993831/AA-Emergency-Car-Hammer-and-Safety-Knife---No-Vehicle-Should-be-Without-One---AA--.html?gclid=COHx98Pw4cECFasBwwod6pQADw#.VFlDMmf2roY

They are meant for keeping in your car in case of emergency, but the hammer will break double glazed windows don't ask me how I know this thus enabling us all to get out in the even of a fire. I got mine in the car accessories bits in the local £ shop.

....and a good few fire extinguishers.....

• on which you've trained, I hope?

(I recall our Fire people sounding off about incompetent novices using fire extinguishers wrongly, on the wrong kind of fires, at the wrong time etc etc. I think that their general view was that if you didn't know precisely what you were doing with fire, you should leave it to those who did.)

Ha LumpenproletariatAndProud

It's a deal! It's exhausting being 200 steps ahead all of the time isn't it.

My suggestion would be to keep a weapon in dd's room, baseball bat or cricket bat, golf club etc. Trip to sports shop should sort you out. You hear a noise, grab mobile or house phone, go to her room, grab weapon. Either you'll realise you panicked and alls fine, or if you're absolutely sure someone is in the house, then ring 999 from there. Keep your mobile charged and take it to bed with you.

If I was home alone, ds was in bed and a fire broke out, I would wrap ds up in a quilt, crouch down as low as possible if there was a lot of smoke and get downstairs and out front door asap (we have a tiny house). Yes quilt could go on fire, but better than ds's clothing going directly up in flames. And would help decrease smoke inhalation? If not possible to go downstairs I would fall backwards out bathroom window (only one I could exit through) holding ds tightly to my chest. Would possibly break my neck, but ds would hopefully be fine. Presumably neighbours would at this stage be aware my house was on fire and rush to help.

If someone broke in, I would do what I suggested you do lol.

Am actually thinking it would be wise to invest in a fire blanket. And that I should move my outside table under bathroom window, so I could jump down onto it with ds in my arms, and not break my neck...

A fire blanket is no bad thing - in the kitchen, for example.

PS - but re the outside table, remember that things that make it easier for you to egress often make it easier to people to access. Weigh it up.

Front door locked but keys left in keyhole in case of emergency. Back door keys kept just out of sight next to the door - and always in the same place (easy to find in the dark)

Test smoke alarms regularly - some people suggest doing it twice a year when we change the clocks.

A good tip which came via DDs Brownies group - keep stairs free of clutter - you don't want to trip over in the dark. I always clear the stairs as I'm going up to bed.

You've all got me panicked now, there's so much information on this thread! I live alone so can someone please advise me on an appropriate fire/burglary/zombie attack plan?

Well I'm apparently a busted flush when it comes to zombie plans. My 21 year old nephew, a devotee of gaming and bad movies, solemnly asked me for advice on one but after I held forth on water, movement, exiting the city etc. etc. he said astonishedly ' But Auntie cozie - you get rescued in three days!'

When I asked him where this rescue was coming from, he looked world weary and added 'That's what always happens. You only have to last for three days.'

So I'm clearly in no position to advise you on those.