Son prank called 999 :-(

[CautiousOptimist]

One or both of my sons - they are 5 and 7 - got hold of my husband’s phone this morning, called 999 and asked for the fire service. I don’t know which it was yet as they’re both at school.

I am obviously mortified but know I won’t be alone.

What is an appropriate punishment? I am planning on an appropriately serious conversation about wasting emergency service time plus no screens for a week. I will also ask my firefighter friend to have a chat about the seriousness of his job.

Do you think that’s enough? I am very surprised they’ve done this. They get a bit silly and egg each other on when overexcited (and I expect it was a combined effort) but are generally thoughtful kids.

Tell them it's a crime.

Oh dear. I think I'd probably do what you've suggested, then see how they react. If they're mortified, and very apologetic, then yes I'd say that's the main thing.

Getting your fire fighter friend in sounds like a very good idea.

I’d make them help you with a chore or two when they’d normally be sat in front of the telly. For no other reason than I generally think it’s a good punishment!

Don’t bother with the boy who cry’s wolf story. All that does is teach children to not tell the same lie twice.

I think a fireman friend having a stern word is your best bet . Also keep phones out of reach. Children aren’t know for self regulating impulses.

What actually happened? Did they attend? A written letter of apology to the local fire station if they were inconvenienced?

Yes, I think getting them to write an apology letter to the fire station is a very good idea. The fire fighters might write back to them, which would help hammer it home, in addition to your friend’s chat.

Don't lose sight of the fact that it's good they know what to do in a real emergency.

Explain that if you did have a fire or need the police and they couldn't get to you because 2 little boys like them had made a prank call then all their toys may burn in the fire etc - something along those lines is what I'd do

Just to say that I used to work answering 999 calls and this happened ALL the time. Most of the 999 calls I got were kids messing around (more common back in those days when there were lots of public phoneboxes).

So yes, I would punish them but I wouldn't feel too mortified about it; it's very common.

The second most common type of 999 call was from people cleaning their phones and accidentally pressing the 9 too often!

After that came people wanting to report their neighbour for having their TV turned up too loud, and people who wanted to order an ambulance to take them to hospital because they had a minor ailment and couldn't afford a taxi.

Actual genuine emergency calls were comparatively rare...

Me and my brother did that around the same age. Called saying our mummy wouldn't wake up.

Mum was raging at us, but maybe she should have been out of bed and giving her kids breakfast and shit instead of sleeping until midday I feel bad because someone could have been ING for a valid reason, but I don't feel bad that it made my mum look bad because she clearly was in bed

there's a lot of back story

Thanks so much for the excellent ideas.
Thankfully they called back my husband’s phone to check / clarify, which is how we found out. So a fire engine wasn’t sent, which is fortunate although doesn’t make what they did any better.