People leaving children at the station semi-unattended at a volunteer station

[u/statuscaffeinepticus]

Hello all,

I am a volunteer firefighter/AEMT for a volunteer fire department. We have a station that is fully equipped for living out of (used to have a live-in program for college students) that a handful of people use. We have a TV room, bunk room, and a gym.

Several times now, I have arrived at the station and found children semi-unattended in the TV room. If it’s only for a short time it’s no big deal, but it does get kind of frustrating when the on-duty crew has to tiptoe around the kids. At previous departments, sometimes members would bring their kids for a tour or something. However, they were not left unattended in the living areas of the crews.

Once all the station duties are done, hit the gym, run calls and do paperwork, training, cook dinner, it’s nice to kick back and relax. It feels disrespectful to be leaving your children in the way of the crew(s). This is a fire department not a daycare?

This is mostly a vent and to see if anyone else has dealt with this.

[u/Merciless602]

We have this same issue. I have no problem with kids being around the station since we are volunteer. My problem is with the parents leaving the kids with a non riding member (no certifications yet) when a call drops. Nobody joins or comes up to the station to be a babysitter.

Also, the kids take up all the space in the day room, they're all on their Ipads and have cartoons on the TV. Only place for people to sit and relax in between calls are in our offices (no everyone has) or laying down in the bunk room. Not to mention the folks that are regularly cleaning the station are always finding candy wrappers and crumbs in the couches/recliners.

If you say something or bring up writing a SOP the same people get all mad and say "we will just stop coming around".

@ 1800+ calls a year this is unacceptable and definitely prohibits the station from being attended on a regular basis.