Family Safety Essentials Every Home Should Have After Dark

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As a parent, keeping your home and family safe is one of your top priorities. This is often easier to do during the day because the sun is out and you can see what’s going on around you. But keeping yourself and your loved ones safe often becomes trickier at night. Low-level conditions make it harder to see approaching danger. Nighttime is also when most people sleep, leaving them vulnerable to situations that could harm them.

The good news is that with forethought and preparation, you can make your home a haven of safety and security. By putting just a few security measures in place, you can give your family peace of mind during the vulnerable nighttime hours. Learn about safety essentials every home should have to keep its occupants protected after the sun goes down.  

Why Family Preparedness Is Important

It’s easy to discount the importance of family preparedness when you’ve never faced an emergency or break-in. However, as the old saying goes, it’s far better to be safe than sorry. This couldn’t be truer than it is when discussing family preparedness. Helping your family get ready for the unexpected is something you’ll never regret doing.

Hopefully, you won’t ever face a situation where you have to put your preparation into practice. But if you do, you’ll be grateful you made the effort to anticipate and prepare for the unthinkable. Here’s why family preparedness is so important, especially for those precarious after-dark hours:

Safety

Preparing your family for emergencies and other extenuating circumstances helps keep them safe. Natural or man-made disasters can disrupt or even threaten your life. Being prepared with safety staples makes it easier to protect your loved ones and yourself.

Normalcy

Being prepared with tools like headlamps, backup power generators, and emergency food kits helps you maintain a sense of normalcy in hard times. Even if the world around you temporarily stalls or dips into chaos, being prepared with the basics can help you maintain a sense of order and calm. Helping loved ones stay grounded in scary situations can go a long way toward preserving their physical and mental health.   

Independence

When regular supply chains and community processes get disrupted, independence can be a powerful thing. If you’re not prepared, you’ll be at the mercy of your community and those around you. On the other hand, being prepared to manage your own needs for a short time makes it so you don’t have to rely on potentially faulty external systems.

Family Safety Essentials to Keep You Safe After Dark

When it comes to keeping your home and family safe after dark, there are a few crucial safety essentials you should have. These pieces of equipment are generally quite affordable, especially considering the security and peace of mind they offer. You can, of course, build up your preparedness arsenal beyond these basics. However, these family safety essentials are a great place to start when building your safety essentials kit:

Portable Lighting

It’s very important to have multiple sources of portable light in your home and ready to go when you need them. Flashlights, headlamps, and lanterns are all great choices because they’re lightweight and easy to carry around with you. Headlamps are particularly nice to have because they leave your hands free for other things. Portable lighting can help you and your family stay safe and function as usual in the event of a power outage.

Smoke Detectors

An estimated 50% of house fires happen between the hours of 11 p.m. and 7 a.m. Unfortunately, that’s when many families are sleeping, which is why late-night fires are particularly dangerous. Installing smoke detectors throughout your home can provide early fire warnings, increasing your family’s chances of escaping. Check fire detectors monthly to ensure they have working batteries and are functioning properly.

Carbon Monoxide Detectors

Like fire detectors, carbon monoxide detectors can provide early warnings if deadly carbon monoxide floods your home. It’s recommended to have at least one carbon monoxide detector on each floor of your home. It’s even better to have one in each sleeping area and in key rooms of the home (such as the kitchen, garage, and basement).

Fire Extinguishers

It’s wise to have a fire extinguisher in high-risk areas of your home. Kitchens and garages are particularly dangerous hotspots where housefires frequently start. You may also want to keep one in hallway closets or near bedrooms. Make sure they’re easy to access and take time to read the instructions so you know how to use them when you need them.

Outdoor Motion Sensor Lights

Not all dangers come in the form of household fires or natural disasters. Sometimes, the most dangerous situations are those that involve ill-intentioned people. Outdoor motion sensor lights can be powerful deterrents to criminals who prefer to operate under the cover of darkness. Whenever possible, install such lights on multiple corners of your home to illuminate dark areas.

Conclusion

Keeping your family safe is well worth the time and investment involved. Fortunately, making your house more secure doesn’t have to be complicated. Start by implementing these simple safety essentials to keep your home and family safe after dark.  

Photo by Jakub Żerdzicki; Unsplash