I was not prepared for preparedness
If you are a parent like me, the fires in LA bring up a ton of feelings - fear, anxiety, grief, devastation, panic, adrenaline, just to name a few. My sister lives in West Hollywood, and the panic and adrenaline that rushed through me to evacuate her safely last week still lingers with me today.
As someone who prides on being super prepared for anything and everything, I have to admit that our level of preparedness is subpar. Once Daniel was born, we obviously had to update our system, but it felt so overwhelming because I was constantly updating it based on new milestones (updating his baby clothing size, updating his diaper size, switching out formulas during the shortage, adding solids when he turned 6 months, etc.) Updating the go-bag, let alone build it, felt like another major and stressful to-do amongst the sea of to-dos. Once Daniel became a toddler, I didn’t need to update it so frequently so that felt a little easier. Nevertheless, last week brought up so much - how do you rebuild your entire life while life is still going? How do you let go? How do you move forward? How do you deal with all of the logistics of insurance and safety while still trying to process the trauma that just occurred?
I feel immense sadness and a huge sense of loss hearing the stories of my LA friends and family. And this might be a hot take but I tell each and every one of them that they don’t have to feel grateful. They don’t have to feel grateful for what they’ve been through. They don’t have to see the silver lining in the trauma. They are being asked the unimaginable - rebuild their entire lives while also showing up for work and hitting deadlines. It’s absolutely wild.
Each one of my LA friends and family spoke about what they wished they would’ve brought or how their preparedness met their expectations. I couldn’t help but also reflect in the same way. While you can never predict the exact disaster scenario, the best advice is to prepare the best you can and try to keep it simple. Here are some adjustments I will be making in our preparedness:
Assemble our prized possessions in a box that can be easily be transported to the car if that is a possibility. We have our valuables strewn all over the house and it doesn’t seem realistic to remember what we want to take with us, let alone, allot the time to grab all of these things.
We will purchase a plastic shed to store all of our emergency items. That way, everything is essentially in one place.
Prepare food and portable stove. In a situation where we may not have a place to stay after evacuation, having the option to prepare hot meals would be a bonus. I had non-perishable items in our go-bag but preparing a way to have hot food was something to add.
Pack a specific go-bag for our dog, Indy instead of loose items. We should try to obtain extra medication that she needs.
I would like to add some comfort toys for Daniel to our emergency go-bag.
Motherly recently published a very comprehensive post on Emergency Go-Bag Tips for Parents and Kids. We share a common sentiment -- preparing for a disaster can be incredibly overwhelming, time-consuming, and expensive. Start small and when you have the time, you can slowly start to build your emergency supplies. If you’re feeling anxious and want to tackle this sooner, book some time with me and take advantage of the Preparedness Package and a 20% discount code PREP2025 to check this off the to-do list.
Your mom friend,
Cathy
