My 16 year old daughter is now a member of a local squad.

[VirginiaEMT]

My daughter who turned 16 last month was voted into a local rescue squad tonight... She is currently scheduled to start EMT class in February.. I am one proud dad and look forward to helping her learn.

My big concern- Keeping her away from those that think a rescue squad is a social club and not a life saving agency and never bother to read a book after their class is over, or learn the equipment.

 

[Sharps]

Congratulations ! The best of luck to her. EMS is definitely not a social club haha. It's more like a black whole that sucks your in forever. You can never stop learning in EMS even if you have completed training.

 

[VirginiaEMT]

Congratulations ! The best of luck to her. EMS is definitely not a social club haha. It's more like a black whole that sucks your in forever. You can never stop learning in EMS even if you have completed training.

Some say EMS stands for "Earn Money Sleeping" but I say it should stand for "Every Minute Studying"

 

[Hunter]

those that think a rescue squad is a social club and not a life saving agency and never bother to read a book after their class is over, or learn the equipment.

These people don't last from what I've seen. There's always done kind of gossip in EMS that's unfortunately become a part of the culture. Hopefully get training officers can sort out who's actually gonna do the job and who isn't going to take it seriously.

 

[firetender]

My big concern- Keeping her away from those that think a rescue squad is a social club and not a life saving agency and never bother to read a book after their class is over, or learn the equipment.

It's out of your hands. Just trust that she'll turn to you when it's time for her to seek perspective and make sure you're there to help.

 

[Akulahawk]

It's out of your hands. Just trust that she'll turn to you when it's time for her to seek perspective and make sure you're there to help.

Yes, you can point the way, but ultimately it's going to be up to her whether or not she wants to follow your advice. I'm 100% in agreement with firetender's advice on this.

 

[wadford]

Congratulations!! I bet you are proud!!

It is so very true that you have to keep learning especially in this field. With new information coming out almost daily, and new equipment being field tested....well there's just no reason not to keep up with it and there are innumerable benefits to both yourself and your patients.

She'll do just fine!

 

[Handsome Robb]

Good to see firetender back!! How've you been, sir?

I don't have kids, still basically am one myself but I think I can speak from the other side of this. If there was one thing I hated more than anything was my parents trying to force things on me. The harder they pushed the harder I pushed back. When they guided me and let me do my own thing it was a totally different world. Obviously I still listened to my parents but when they tried to make me spend a lot of time on an activity I wasn't interested in it made everyone unhappy and ultimately put me off of the idea all together.

Example: Boy Scouts. I loved Boy Scouts but I honestly was only interested in merit badges and camping. Tank didn't matter to me a whole lot. Looking back it would have been nice to have my Eagle Scout now but my father hounded me to get it. Constantly. It was all he ever talked about and it ultimately ended in me saying I didn't want to participate in anything anymore and moving on to other activities. High school football didn't help my case either, I really wanted to play football! Should've listened to mom and played soccer and I probably wouldn't have had to have dealt with the whole fractured neck and multiple concussion ordeal but that's a different story

What I'm trying to get at is guide her, when she asks for help welcome her with open arms (which I'm sure you already do, you've always seemed like a solid dude from your posts), offer advice when you think she should change something but don't be overbearing.

It seems like this job runs in the family, I'm sure her rescue squad-capades will bring you less stress than her 16-year-old-high-school-girl-capades will!