FamAlert is a service that you sadly might not know you need till it is too late. This was the case for my family, let me tell you about it.
My sweet 13 year old homeschooler has been going to a church with a friend and her family these past few months. She has been making friends, learning about a different faith, and enjoying herself. She is an active girl who loves to be social, has a cell phone, and likes to get out into the world. Many people think homeschoolers just stay at home, or that they are overly sheltered, we though try not to be like that. I think however that being homeschool parents we sometimes forget that things can happen in those times we are not right with our children, things we can’t expect to see coming.
Our daughter went out on a trip to the mountains with the church group, her friends family took her along. We honestly hadn’t gotten the details of the trip, just that it was a hike. We didn’t know it was hours away, and we didn’t know it was a mountain. Even if we had known though, we would have let her go. This is a reminder to myself to get more details. Did I mention though that we try to give our daughter some freedom to go along with the responsibility we place on her?
While our daughter was away, we at home were busy, going out and getting errands done, cleaning and organizing, and then I ending up sick in bed. A rather full day. What I failed to notice was that my cell phone had died, and my husband used to having important meetings had his phone to silent. We don’t have a house phone.
At some point I noticed my husband phone flashing a little light. I leaned over to pick it up and it had many missed calls, and messages. Thinking he must have not checked his phone in a while, but that missed call number was oddly high I checked the messages for him. My heart dropped hearing the first one. A message from the father of my daughters friend letting us know they could not get a hold of us, that our daughter had fallen in the woods and they had to carry her out, and that they were on their way home. Another message, from our daughter this time, not on her cell phone though, but another number we didn’t know. She was upset, letting us know what happened, wondering why she couldn’t get a hold of us.
What a failed parenting day for us… first we didn’t have details about where she was going and then no one could get hold of us. What if it had been worse? Hours later our daughter was home, her foot hurting her, and then off to get an x-ray. Very, very broken. It required surgery and will require surgery again next fall to get the plate and pins in her foot out.
It could have been much worse, and she couldn’t get a hold of us, no one could. Why? Because we had no emergency contact numbers with her church group and she didn’t think to call a local friend to come tell us. She didn’t think to call anyone else, though really she didn’t have anyone elses number because in that fall, she broke her own cell phone.
This is when we could have used FamAlert. What is FamAlert? It is a family emergency number service that is unlike any I have seen before. You give out ONE number to schools and day cares and anyone else that is taking care of a loved one. That one number is linked to other phone numbers that you set up on the website: www.FamAlert.com if something changes, someone moves or is not able to be an emergency contact, you don’t have to call the school or day care and all those other places to update them with someone new, you just update your emergency list on the site and you’re done.
My Experience with FamAlert:
Setting up FamAlert was not hard. I was able to pick the emergency number that would be the number given out and called in case of a family emergency. Then I set up three tiers of numbers of people who can be called in case of emergency. I called family and friends and asked them first if I could add them of course. Then one by one I verified the numbers either by having the system text the contact persons number or call their number. My mother did not really understand the system and hit a button that had the system call the first tier numbers. I picked up and talked to her about it. My husband then let me know that he got a text message that he missed a call from FamAlert and that I relieved the call. This is a great feature so that people on the tier know who is handling the situation. When testing the system I made sure that no one from my first tier would pick up, so it rang the 4 people on the second one, two picked up and I got to talk to them both and thank them for being on our emergency contact list. The other people on that tier got text messages that they missed a call from FamAlert and then that others had picked it up! I feel confident in this system and I am glad we have it!
FamAlert has been kind enough to offer readers a discount coupon:
Coupon code BLOG20 for 20% off your first three month subscription or an annual subscription!
Or if you have any connection to military, police, fire or teachers you can use the code hero25 for a 25% discount!
You should check out FamAlert, you just don’t know you need it until you need it!
Disclaimer: This review has been brought to you by Advertise With Bloggers and FamAlert. I was compensated with a Fam Alert subscription in order to facilitate my review. All opinions are 100% mine.
Sharing this info! Sorry about your daughter!
This is a great service, I have never even thought about something like this happening, but it makes sense.
This looks like a great site but I think http://www.familysearchalert.com has a lot more features for a 1/3rd of the price. Its only $25 for the year and it covers kids, adults/seniors, & pets. FSA also posts to your kid’s Facebook & Twitter accounts so their friends can be notified as well. Both are great sites but I think FSA takes the cake here.