How many of you have taken your child camping with promises of fresh air and fresh experiences? How many of you have told them, “don’t wander off,” or “watch out for poison ivy?” Ok, how about this; how many of you have taught your child how to signal a rescue plane, build a rudimentary shelter, build a fire without matches and use it to signal rescuers?
The truth is that many of us set off into the wilderness with our children in tow, content that we have a single responsibility to see them safely home to their mother’s when the trip is done. But, while we certainly do everything in our power to ensure we are able to care for our kids, the reality is that doing so isn’t always a choice we get to make. Unless your child has been glued to your body and you happen to be immortal, you can’t be the only survival tool your child has available.
Empowering your son or daughter by teaching them fundamental survival and self-rescue techniques is the most responsible thing you can do. Ensure they know what to do in an emergency should you, God forbid, be injured or killed or should the two of you become separated in the wild. In that case, all your good intentions are pointless.
You should teach and prepare your child for any outing as follows:
- Teach your child how to build a safe fire and how to use it to make signal smoke
- Equip your child with a signal whistle and have him carry it at all times while camping or hiking
- Teach your child basic direction finding skills
- Teach your child how to find and make drinking water safe
- Teach your child basic first aid skills
- Teach your child how to build a shelter
- Equip your child with a compass and teach her how to use it
There are any number of things I could add to this list that would be useful but, for now, the objective isn’t to turn your child into the next Bear Grylls. You just want to do what you can to ensure that your child can prolong their survival independent of you. Every additional hour they can survive on their own means that much more opportunity for rescuers to locate them. So do the right thing and equip your child with the safety net they really need; the knowledge and skill to survive.
