When I was younger, and I had an unpleasant thought, my strategy was simply to distract myself with something happier until the unpleasant thoughts went away. Not exactly the best long term strategy for dealing with stress but hey, I was a kid.
Now that I’m a mom, it’s become my job to think about worst case scenarios and plan for them as much as I can. I don’t love this part of my job description. People always talk about the “unpleasant parts of motherhood” being things like diaper changing and sleepless nights. Maybe even the never-ending pile of laundry and dishes.
Those things are all fine. Par for the course of motherhood. But thinking about the worst case scenarios that could happen to you, your partner or worst of all your kids and having a plan in place for them? That has to be the most unpleasant thing of all. No one wants to think about those things!
Quite honestly, I’d rather close my eyes, plug my ears and sing a silly song until I forget about all the worst-case things that could ever happen to my family.
I’m not a kid anymore though; I don’t get that luxury anymore. I’m not able to look the other way when it comes to the health and safety of my family, even if we’re only talking about the hypothetical health in a future worst-case scenario.
Life can be scary enough as a single person, but when you add kids to the equation you realize it’s time to get serious and figure things out both for current issues and issues that could arise in the future.
One thing I appreciate about Aflac is that it provides a safety net for the unexpected moments at every stage of life. From when you’re just starting out your career as a single person, to mid-career people with kids, and even employees approaching retirement. They have a supplemental insurance policy that can help with the unexpected for each stage of life.
Aflac offers supplemental policies for policyholders. What is unique about this method is that while regular major medical insurance covers some costs and pays out directly to a doctor or hospital, Aflac pays you (unless otherwise assigned), to help you carry on with regular expenses and figure out what money needs to go where in the event of an accident.
I could see this being useful in many cases. It can be a scary time when someone in your family has an accident and there are still other bills that need paid on top of your insurance deductibles. Aflac can help you pay regular bills while you work on also paying for the hospital or emergency room visit.
Last year, my daughter took a fall and hit her head against the corner of our brick fireplace. We rushed her to an urgent care clinic and found out she had fractured her skull. This was by far one of the scariest moments of my life so far, and it lasted a lot longer than just the two hours we were in urgent care.
While they did send us home with her, we had to watch her all night to be sure she didn’t have a seizure or anything serious start happening in the night. As she played for the next couple of weeks, we had to be sure that she didn’t jump or run around. Any sort of jolting of her head had the possibility to change the small fracture in her skull to something more serious. We were given a list of things to watch for and instructions to rush her to the hospital if anything out of the ordinary occurred.
I don’t know if you’ve ever tried to keep a three-year-old from running and jumping when she plays, but it’s no easy task. We were fortunate that she never took a turn for the worst, and we were able to avoid a hospital visit. But if we had been faced with one, I can see how much the Aflac accident insurance could have helped.
With a three–year-old in the hospital downtown, there would be a LOT of extra expenses beyond the hospital stay itself (which would be no small bill). Gas bills driving back and forth from downtown, eating out while staying near the hospital, extra things to keep little girl and hospital-staying family members entertained and SO MANY more.
Aflac helps cover all those extras. Not to mention regular day to day bills that might start stacking up if mom or dad need to take some time off of work.
You guys. I don’t like thinking about these things. It’s my least favorite part of being a mom. But, it’s important to think through these things. To have a plan in place so that your family is taken care of in the even of an emergency or misfortune.
In addition to the accident insurance, Aflac also offers short-term disability insurance, critical illness insurance, cancer insurance, hospital indemnity insurance and life insurance.
You can find out more about these policies by visiting Aflac.com, asking your human resources manager what insurance policies are available to you and looking at Aflac’s benefits estimator calculator to calculate the amount that Aflac could provide to assist you with out of pocket expenses that may not be covered by your major medical insurance.
Sure, this isn’t one of our usual fun and positive posts but it’s important for every parent to think about, so I wanted to bring it up with you today. Do you have a plan in place in the event of emergency? Take the time to talk it over with your partner this week!
I was selected for this opportunity as a member of Clever Girls and the content and opinions expressed here are all my own.
Policies may not be available in all states. Limitations and exclusions may apply. Benefits are determined by state and plan level selected. Coverage is underwritten by American Family Life Assurance Company of Columbus. In New York, coverage is underwritten by American Family Life Assurance Company of New York. WWHQ | 1932 Wynnton Road | Columbus, GA 31999.
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