Have You Taken the Emergency Preparedness Date Night Challenge?

Hello!  It’s Melanie again, from PlanForAwesome.com.  I’m so glad the girls at My Mommy Style have invited me to share a few things this month on the topic of Emergency Preparedness.  With it being National Emergency Preparedness Month, I wanted to do something that would catch the interest of more than just those who are already involved in emergency preparedness.  My goal was to reach those who DON’T like this topic.  That’s why I created

4 FREE Emergency Preparedness Printable Date Nights!

These “date nights” certainly don’t have to be done on a date night with a spouse.  The tasks are the same whether you are married or single, and whether you have kids or not.  The date night format is just to make it a little more fun.

In case you’re just joining us on this Emergency Preparedness Date Night journey, I thought I’d give a quick recap of what we’ve covered so far.  We have covered the BASICS.  I designed these date nights to be able to be completed in a 2-hour chunk of time.  So if you can block out just 2 hours a week for 4 weeks, you will be prepared for MULTIPLE emergency situations.

Can you give 2 hours a week for the next 4 weeks to quite possibly save the lives of you and your family down the road?  

Date Night #1…

…is all about your house.  You’ll learn where your gas shut-off is and how to shut it off and what tools you’ll need.  The same things for your water shut-off are included, as well as how to cut all power to your entire house and FAST.  You’ll learn how to operate your garage door manually, in case of a power outage.  These may not seem very “Emergency Preparedness”-oriented.  But these things are absolutely preparing for emergencies!  Let me give you an example…

We had just poured some concrete to create more room to park on the side of our home.  I was backing up into the new parking spot, and wasn’t looking for a gas meter that was protruding out of the wall; I was just paying attention to the actual wall of the house.  I’m assuming you can guess what happened next.  I totally hit the gas meter!  It busted a pipe off and gas started LOUDLY hissing its way out into the air.  It was LOUD and it was A LOT and it SMELLED and I had a bunch of kids with me.  Luckily (or unluckily, since it was so embarrassing and stressful) my husband was home and ran out to the front when he heard it happen.  He turned the gas off while I gathered the kids and ran them over to the park in our neighborhood.

Had we not been prepared with the proper tools and knowledge of how to turn the gas off, we would have had a really dangerous situation on our hands.

Have you ever been stranded at your house because the power was out and you didn’t know how to manually operate your garage door?  I have!  It was super inconvenient.  I wouldn’t call that an emergency necessarily, but now imagine you were ordered to evacuate because a hurricane was coming to your area.  Not being able to open your garage would then have turned into an emergency.  So whether this knowledge saves you from an inconvenience, or aids you in evacuating your home in a true emergency, it’s good knowledge to have!

Date Night #2…

…is all about house fires.  If you don’t think this could happen to you, think again.  It happens to people who think it will never happen to them.  And most of the time, it has nothing to do with anything they did or didn’t do.  It just happens.  For situations like that, the only thing you can do is prepare.  The preparation for this possibility really isn’t bad at all.  All it takes is 2 hours to ensure you have what you need to keep your family alive.  2 hours!

Date Night #3…

…is finishing up the house fires topic, but more on the preserving information side of things.  Where Date Night #2 covers life-saving things, Date Night #3 addresses the steps you can take to ensure the safety of your information and memories.  Again, 2 hours is NOTHING, considering what it could mean if your home were to catch fire.  It also protects these same items and information in the event of a flood.  This will be perhaps among the best 2 hours of your life you’ve ever spent.  Don’t delay.  This is huge.

Date Night #4…

…is making a Family Emergency Plan, getting set up for emergency alerts on your phone, and preparing your home for an earthquake.  If you do not live in earthquake territory, *most* of these tasks still apply to you. For example…have you seen the commercial that says, “Every 24 minutes tipped furniture or a falling TV sends an injured child to the emergency room?”  They aren’t talking about earthquakes there.  They are talking about normal everyday life in normal homes, in states that have never experienced earthquakes.  So this date night still applies to everyone.  Espeically the Family Emergency Plan and emergency alerts!

Still to Come…Family Emergency Preparedness Night 

This will cover ALL THE THINGS your KIDS need to know.  It comes at the end, because you need to have all the knowledge and tools before you can teach them.  This will go out next Monday morning.

So there you have it!  That’s what we’ve been up to this month over at Plan For Awesome!

Ready to get started?  Here are the details!

IT IS NOT TOO LATE TO SIGN UP FOR THIS!  You can start this whenever you find out about it, and you can even do one date night every other week, or once a month, or you could knock them all out in a week if you want!  Just do them!  Whether as date nights, or at 1:00 in the afternoon while your kids are in school and your baby is napping.  JUST DO THEM!

• Each date night is designed to be able to be completed in a 2-hour uninterrupted block of time.
• You will want to be AT YOUR HOUSE for these date nights.
• If you cannot find a sitter, this is totally doable with kids – it just might take a little longer.  Or you could always wait until they’re in bed.  My favorite option would be to arrange a date night swap with a friend who will do this challenge too.  Tell them about the challenge and then offer to watch their kids one night, and then have them watch your kids another night.  That way neither one of you is paying for a sitter, you get your house to yourself to really focus on this, and you motivate a friend to also take steps toward protecting and preparing their family.  There’s pretty much no downside to the date night swap idea.
• These date nights are available to subscribers of MyMommyStyle.com and PlanForAwesome.com.  So go to PlanForAwesome.com and subscribe to the blog, which will automatically subscribe you to MyMommyStyle.com as well.  Your first free date night will be available for download as soon as you confirm your subscription. 

You can do this!  Take the steps NOW to prevent tragedy LATER.  It’s EASY.  Just subscribe, and click print.  It really is that easy.

I would love for you to follow me on Instagram, Facebook, and Pinterest!  See you soon ♥

Melanie is the blogger of PlanForAwesome.com, a blog about being prepared for any and everything.  While she focuses largely on Emergency Preparedness, she also writes a lot about Organization and Kids.  She is a mom of 4, stepmom of 3, and is married to the handiest guy she knows.  In her spare time, she teaches piano and tutors math.