Learning to be a safer parent

by Amy We ventured out in the wind today to join a small group of folks at Anna Belanger and Associates to take part in Amanda DeGrace’s Safe Parent course. The class takes place on the lower floor of the building in a warm, comfortable area with couches and rockers for those of us who happened to have our little ones with us. Joe and I brought Maggie with us and another woman had her 10-week old with her.

I had met Amanda before at some of the Kids in the Capital Tuesday meet-ups, I liked her immediately and this class is a wonderful forum for her. She shares experience and knowledge in a very clear way. She explained that she had designed the Safe Parent class to benefit parents and caretakers who might not have enough time to take a full first aid course for certification but who want to have some of the skills to help those they take care of in case something bad happens.

During the four hours Amanda went over what do when an infant or child is choking, how to perform CPR, what to do in case of cuts, seizures, burns, and more. She repeated the important points over and over again to drill them into our memories and she quizzed us.

The most important thing Amanda told us throughout the day was that if you forget something or miss a step, don’t panic – doing something is always better than doing nothing, and that if all you remember to do is call 911, you’ve done something to help this person.

The class was informative and made me feel better about being in an emergency situation with my daughter or another child and knowing a bit more about signs to look for and what to expect to see in certain situations. It was a nice environment with not too many people. We spent our breaks talking about our experiences with young children.

It was a good way to spend our afternoon and I would definitely recommend the Safe Parent course to others with little ones in their lives.

Amanda is offering all Kids in the Capital readers 30% off the Safe Parent course.  The discount will be accepted until December 31, 2010.

Amy is mom to 8-month-old Maggie and a 4 year old schnauzer named Henry. You can read her blog at amyboughner.ca where she writes about motherhood and anything else that’s on her mind.