Would you want your neighbors to check on your latchkey kids without your permission? (party, legal)
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We are very lucky to live in a close-knit neighborhood, so yes I would want my neighbors to check on my children if there was a dangerous situation. Of the 15 houses on our street, 10 or 11 have kids, so I would do the same if they ever needed help.
What kind of weather emergency would prevent calling home or a neighbor?
One that knocked out phone service, I guess. Kids don't always make good decisions, either, even when they're old enough to stay home in normal circumstances.
Where we live, any weather that would knock out cell phone service is known about ahead of time, so we would already have plans in place. What could happen so quickly in other areas that you are caught completely off guard?
Where we live, any weather that would knock out cell phone service is known about ahead of time, so we would already have plans in place. What could happen so quickly in other areas that you are caught completely off guard?
Agreed. I feel like anytime a snow storm is coming you know days in advance. Also, while living in Ohio I lived in the snow belt. Phone lines are sometimes placed underground to prevent outages from snow.
If it's bad weather, sure. That doesn't mean walk right in, though (at least if it's not a pressing emergency situation). But come and knock or ring the bell, and then call if there's no answer? Absolutely!
When we lived in California we didn't have to worry about bad weather, but we did have earthquakes. I remember our neighbor going door to door to check on everyone on our end of the block, just in case (even though wearing a bathrobe and slippers, and even though not a big earthquake). I thought it was a nice thing to do.
And if the issue is something like a tornado warning, I think it would be just fine for a neighbor to go over and invite the kids over to come to their house. Bad weather can be scary; sometimes it's nice to have others around. I think if it's a real concern, and if someone has questions about the neighbors, then they should discuss that with the kids in advance. And, as others have noted, same thing could go for power outages and the like. Neighbors should look out for one another.
I liked your post. As a Californian, we don't necessarily have bad weather. We have earthquakes and fires. A few years ago, we had a massive fire in Canyon Country. We were on the verge of evacuation. At that time, I lived in a very large condo complex. The smoke was billowing over the hillside. The neighbors started to knock on everybody's door to make sure that everybody was OK and ready to go, just in case we had to stage and evacuate.
In Sylmar, a beautiful mobile home park was destroyed because of the fire. The neighbor knew that an elderly woman lived next door. She did not answer, so he kicked the door in and took her to the shelter location.
During scary situations, it is ok to knock or ring the door bell to make sure that children are OK. Not only am I a realtor, I'm a probation officer in a juvenile residential detention center and by law a mandated reporter.
Yes but they are usually predicted since the fronts have to be in a correct position to create the rotation.
Out our way, tornadoes are a very spur of the moment event. I never heard a weather forecaster saying, "There will be a tornado at 3:15 PM".
Quote:
Originally Posted by ohiogirl22
Agreed. I feel like anytime a snow storm is coming you know days in advance. Also, while living in Ohio I lived in the snow belt. Phone lines are sometimes placed underground to prevent outages from snow.
Our weather is certainly different from yours if in your area, one can predict with certainty days in advance what is going to happen. We get a lot of storms that are predicted to be 4-6", for ex, that end up being 20". We get storms predicted that never happen, too.
Emergencies are just that, emergencies. The power can go out when it's 10 below 0. Power outages are usually very local. Mom and Dad may be working some miles away where there is no problem. Other, unpredicatable things can happen. You guys who know your cell phone service will go out at a certain time are lucky. I'm just saying, I'd rather have someone check on my kids and find out everything is OK than the opposite. My kids are grown now, BTW, I'm talking hypothetically.
In 1984... high winds of 60 to 80 mph occurred along the Front
Range eastern foothills. In Boulder... the high winds blew
the roof off a service station. Several trees were felled...
damaging some cars. An elderly woman was injured when she
was knocked down by a wind gust and blown 20 feet into some
bushes.
Just one example. Now what if that were your child who had gone outside for some reason and got blown 20' into some bushes? What if the wind blew the roof off your house? (It happened a few years ago to my kids' school [during winter break when school was out]).
Last edited by Katarina Witt; 11-27-2010 at 09:42 PM..
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Looking Out For Your Neighbor
