Can Your Kids Hear It?

iVillage Member
Registered: 12-24-2006
Can Your Kids Hear It?
6
Sun, 02-11-2007 - 2:56pm

For those that don't know, I'm extremely paranoid about fire. 2 years ago my sister died when her house burned down. (she was passed out on drugs, so a smoke alarm probably wouldn't have helped her...)

But I had a pancake incident the other morning. The smoke alarm is right outside DS's bedroom, I almost never got it to stop SCREAMING, and he never heard it. I know he hadn't drank or taken anything cause we were together in the same room for hours and hours (hehe, yes, he doesn't hate me as much anymore).

I was wondering if anyone had set one off on purpose just to see if your teens will hear it. I recently heard that an alarm that speaks the child's name is more likely to wake them up. Last week I bought a smoke alarm for his house, but the store didn't have the kind that speaks to them.

Any thoughts? Does anyone know if their kids will wake up to the alarm?

zz -- alarmed!

iVillage Member
Registered: 12-14-2006
Sun, 02-11-2007 - 4:07pm

This is one of my biggest fears when L goes away to school - she can sleep through anything! I've seriously asked her what she would do if she didn't have a light-sleeping roommate in college?

Both my kids are very sound sleepers - a side benefit of growing up in city neighborhoods, I guess, and in general this has been nice. They were both easy sleeper as toddlers, and my DS7 can sleep even when we are talking or watching TV in the next room.

But the question you raise is key - what if they *need* to wake up? Let me know if you find that talking alarm. That may be a good answer for my DD.

Sue

iVillage Member
Registered: 11-08-2003
Sun, 02-11-2007 - 7:24pm
I think my kids can hear it.. we have one that is all wired together so if one goes off they all go off in the house.

"Ginny"

Loving wife

iVillage Member
Registered: 03-26-2003
Sun, 02-11-2007 - 8:00pm

DS2 can certainly wake to his cell phone which isnt that loud. He doesnt even use a separate alarm at college-just his phone

Perhaps instead of moms voice we could record in the cell ringer, if they have one!

I am glad things are better with ds; I know from AIK it has been rough on you both!

iVillage Member
Registered: 12-24-2006
Mon, 02-12-2007 - 2:44am

Thanks all.

It is scary to me that DS sleeps as hard as he does. He can sleep through alarm clocks next to his head, and I've bought some pretty loud alarm clocks. He's tried sleeping with his cell on his pillow so that I could call and wake him for work. Never hears it.

I like the idea of multiple smoke detectors wired in together. Surely if I put one right over his head he'll hear it.

<>>

Thank you. He just spent a week here with me. It was great!

zz

iVillage Member
Registered: 03-06-2006
Mon, 02-12-2007 - 9:57am

DD is kind of a nervous Nellie ... she wakes up at the slightest sound ... like the wind rattling her window screen. She does get up with her alarm clock in the mornings. It's on the opposite side of her room so she has to get out of bed to turn it off.

DS sleeps with the dead and always has. He sleeps through earthquakes that get the rest of us up, out of bed and in a doorway in a flash. DH usually wakes him up on school mornings, so I don't know if he'd wake to an alarm clock. Guess I need to try that.

Oh ... and we have smoke detectors in just about every room and multiples in common areas. When one goes, they ALL go so I imagine it would be hard to sleep through that.

 

 

 

iVillage Member
Registered: 11-06-2003
Tue, 02-13-2007 - 6:02pm

Nope, we tried that a year ago and they slept through it.

Hmmm, maybe mine needs some Pavlov training (isn't Pavlov the one who did that?). Maybe I can dump a glass of cold water on them everytime it goes off. You think after about a dozen times they'll be conditioned to get up?

Sallie