Elevator Safety Tips for Parents of Young Children

by | Jul 11, 2016 | Elevator Tips | 0 comments

Are residential elevators in DE safe for young children? Yes – if you follow a few simple rules and use common sense.

Set Good Examples

If you’re the parent of a young child, you always want to set a good example. Elevators are one place to start. You should always hold doors open with the open button, not with your hands, arms, legs or feet. That might work for you, but if your little one tries it, they might not have the strength to trip the mechanism that opens the door. This can lead to bruises and… maybe even a fear of elevators.

Here’s a point of etiquette worth instilling early, and it is changing. Remember the days when men used to wait for women to exit first? In a crowded elevator, that can create cumbersome situations. The new rule reflects today’s gender equality: exit immediately at your floor.

Setting Expectations

Don’t forget to have the elevator talk. Does your child know what to do if the elevator stops between floors? (The answer is: don’t try to force the doors open, use the alarm bell, make a call if you have a cell phone, and wait.) Children, like anyone else, often have misconceptions in situations they are unprepared for. Do they know that if the elevator stalls, there will be plenty of air for them? Do they know that, in a power outage, emergency lighting will turn on? You can also assure them that the cables won’t break, they would be safe if the elevator stopped.

It’s important to go over something that may seem so obvious it doesn’t occur to you: why don’t we use elevators in a fire? After all, using them is intuitively obvious, even if wrong – you want to get out as fast as possible and stairs will just slow you down. That’s only true, of course, if the elevator doesn’t stop because of a power failure, which frequently occurs in a fire. Best to use the stairs.

Lastly, don’t forget to point out the simple truth: elevators, by design and because of regular maintenance, are incredibly safe. If you want to explore adding a residential elevator in your DE home, give us a call – we’re kid friendly!