A couple of days ago my 2 1/2 year old daughter and I got to go on a tour of a local fire station. It was an outting planned by our playgroup.

Amidst the fun of "driving" a real fire truck and putting out a pretend "fire" with a real firehose, the kiddies got to learn a really important lesson. Firemen in uniform look like big bananas (not monsters), and if you see one in your house, don't hide, give him a hug. Apparently firefighters have a hard time rescuing kids from fires because the kids see them as scary monsters and hide.

One of the firemen got all geared up while the kiddies were watching so that they could see what each piece of the uniform was and how even when all geared up with the face mask and chirping thingy and everything, he was still a regular person. The uniform was yellow so they told the kiddies that the firefighter would look like a giant banana when he was all geared up. Then when he was all dress up, they invited the kids to touch him.
Then they explained to the kiddies how if a fireman all dressed up like that visits their house, he is really friendly and they should go give him a hug (and not hide!).

When seeing the fireman with all of his gear on (especially the mask and the chirpy thing) I could see how a kid could easily be frightened of the "monster", especially in an already scary situation like a house fire.

I was proud of my girl as she was the first one to shake hands with the fireman when he was all geared up. A few of the other kids were too scared to shake his hand, but I think that they benefited from the experience and if they end up in a fire will be less likely to hide from the firemen.

If you have young children who have never seen a fireman in full gear, it might be a good experience for them to go on a tour of a firestation and see one.

-Kuovonne