Moms With Marbles: Mom's Disaster Preparedness Plan

Moms With Marbles is a weekly post from a different mom around the web who shares her marbles of mommy wisdom. If you are interested in being featured, please send an email to momsmarbles{at}hotmail{dot}com.

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This week's Mom With Marbles is Heather from

School is out in just 3 short days and my monkeys will be home for 3 long months. We'll hit parks, playgrounds, libraries and special events in the area; I'll find ways to work the girls into my daily routine of chores, errands and food prep. Along the way, though, disasters will happen. Most will be minor, like arriving at the bounce house with 2 kids in flip flops.

Some will be expensive (what's worse than $2 bounce house socks?), some will be painful (though I'm hoping to avoid an ER trip this year) and some will be down right annoying (hey, who forgot the sunscreen? Oh, right. Me).

Thus, my plans for a successful summer include more than just a schedule of activities and a lunch menu. Each year, I replenish my own, personal Summer Fun Emergency Kit. I actually keep it in my car year round, but it gets the bulk of its use through the summer. It's full of great things like bandages, Tylenol and tissues but I also keep extra socks for indoor playgrounds, batteries for who knows what and sunscreen because I've forgotten it one too many times.

That doesn't mean I don't pack the sunscreen when I know we'll be outside or remind my girls to don socks when we need them. The emergency kit is just that—for emergencies only. I try to forget it's there on a regular basis, but I'd be lying if I didn't tell you we use it at least once a week. Of course, if I'd just store the Wet Ones somewhere else we might not open the kit quite so often. It has saved me from taking sticky hands to the grocery store many times over

The Shout wipes I include have rescued clothing from similar messes. If you're a germaphobe or just visit parks with not so great restrooms, be sure to include hand sanitizer. I'm even considering including entire outfits this year, though we're finally finished with potty training. It never fails that the one day I have plans for lunch or to stop by the store on the way home is the day one of the kids falls in the creek on our hike or lands right in a mud puddle at the bottom of the slide.

Stopping Murphy's Law in its tracks is what my little kit is all about. My girls are constantly surprising me so I'm sure they'll come up with at least one kid emergency I can't thwart. I am constantly adding things as these situations arise. New this year are my pocket-sized grocery sacks. It will provide the opportunity to stop at the grocery store on the fly or a waterproof bag for wet clothes.

If you're putting together one of your own, you should include things like:

• Baby wipes or Wet Ones


• Shout wipes


• Hand sanitizer


• Tissues


• Hair ties


• Sunscreen


• Bug spray


• Bandages


• Neosporin


• Anti-itch cream for bug bites


• Tweezers (for removing splinters or bee stingers)


• Spare eyeglasses, if anyone wears them


• Socks (for unexpected stops at indoor playgrounds)


• Tylenol or ibuprofen (children & adult)


• A little cash (to avoid atm fees away from home)


• Extra batteries for cameras & kids' toys


• Medicine, inhalers, epi-pen as needed


• Bottled water & snacks


• reusable grocery sacks


• Diapers or extra clothes for babies & potty-training toddlers


• Anything else you have ever gone back home for or purchased on a trip

Please, feel free to share your own ideas; I'm all ears. My kit is ever evolving, much like my parenting itself. Maybe—if I had 12 more kids—I'd finally get this mom thing right, but I think I'll just keep practicing on the ones I've got.