First Aid and Family Dinners

By Tim Gamble

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The Epoch Times ran two articles over the weekend that got me to thinking. One article was Children as Young as 4 Can Learn What to Do in a Medical Emergency: American Heart Association. The other article was How to Make Family Dinners a Reality in an Age of Devices and Distractions. I want to springboard off those two articles to briefly discuss two important topics.

First Aid

• Make sure everyone knows, especially younger kids, how to call 911 in an emergency.
• Have a good first aid kit in your home (rather than just having random supplies scattered about your house). Make sure everyone knows where it is and how to use it. 
• A good first aid handbook is useful, but all adults and all children of school age should take a first aid/CPR course.
• Children should start learning first aid very early on - by age 4, according to the American Heart Association. I remember being taught first aid in school when we were in fourth grade. There's no reason whey we couldn't have started learning the basics even earlier. 

Family Bonding 

The break down of the family unit over the last sixty years is startling. Is it any wonder our world is in as big a mess as it is? One of the big reasons, in my opinion, is a lack of traditional family bonding. Americans, and other Westerners, typically don't go to church together anymore. We don't typically eat family meals together, at least not without our TVs and smart phones actually dominating this "family time." We don't actually spend much time together as families anymore. We too busy doing all the other stuff we have been convinced we "have to do," instead of making time for each other. 

Some ideas to increase family bonding:

• Have a least one meal together as a family on most days. Turn off the TV and phones during family dinner hour. Talk. 
• Have a family game night once a week (or once every two weeks or whatever works for your family) and make it a priority. Don't skip it.
• Read the Bible and pray as a family. Sure, your teenagers will roll their eyes, but you should be much more concerned about being a good Mom than about being a cool Mom. 
• Go to Church as a family! Yes, that includes Dad - no sleeping in, playing golf, or watching football. 

You can find Tim Gamble on social media! Follow at Gab (@TimGamble), Twitter (@TimGambleSpeaks), and TruthSocial (@TimGambleSpeaks)

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AD: Classic Board Games: Monopoly, Candyland, Operation, Clue, Sorry, Risk, Connect 4, Chutes & Ladders, and even Checkers and Chess, are just some of the classic board games that promote great family bonding. Institute a weekly family game night at your house! 

AD: ACEP First Aid Manual, 5th Edition - Everyone, prepper or not, should learn first aid. This first aid manual of the American College of Emergency Physicians (ACEP) is much more up-to-date (2014) than the American Red Cross manual, which hasn't been updated since 1992.