You are not preparing for one emergency. You are preparing for a toddler's emergency and a parent's emergency, often with different needs, at the same time, with the same amount of you.
The official preparedness guide written for people caring for someone else - the medical and mobility detail this page is not trying to replace.
Download the PDF ↓Check the current version on Ready.gov →A U.S. government work, free of copyright. We host a copy so you can have it immediately, and link the live version too, because an emergency document that has been updated matters more than a convenient copy. We are not affiliated with, and not endorsed by, FEMA, DHS or any government agency.
Rather than two separate plans competing for your attention, use one list with a column for each person's specific needs — your parent's medication and mobility aids, your child's comfort item and any allergy note — and a shared column for what covers everyone.
A grandparent who is included as help — reading to a grandchild in a shelter, holding a hand during the loud part — is calmer than one only being managed. A child who is handing out water bottles is calmer than one only being watched.
Medication names and doses, a parent's specific triggers or needs, a child's allergy — the details living only in your head are the ones lost if you are the one who is unreachable, injured, or simply overwhelmed for an hour. Write them down once, for someone else to use if they have to.
This is common and it is not something we can solve generically - a smaller, specific ask ("just keep this bag by the door") is often easier for someone to accept than a full conversation about disaster planning.
A simple, factual version - "Grandpa needs his medicine bag, that is one of our jobs" - gives a child something concrete to help with, rather than something frightening to worry about.
Part of our guide to Emergency prep for families with kids.