It's 1:00 AM, we're having a superstorm and my husband and little girls are sound asleep. I'm lying in bed, wide awake. By choice. The only thing keeping me up is my desire to write this post to hopefully help parents who may not be having as peaceful a night as I am.
Our success with this will sound really simple to you, possibly to the point of frustration, but it is the honest truth and we believe in it.
Here are our few short steps for teaching children to keep calm through a storm.
1. Keep YOUR calm during the storm. Each time you scream or jump when it thunders or when it's lightning, you're robbing your child of his or her ability to brave a storm.
2. Fake it till you make it. Sometimes storms are scary. Same is true of tornadoes. We live in Middle Tennessee where tornadoes are prevalent, and I am terrified of them. But I protect my kids from scary tornado talk and even of watching the news and weather. We do talk about safety and tornado drills and have a storm cellar if need be, but no "oh my gosh" or "woe is me" talk. We keep things business as usual for them, to the extent possible, so their routines are protected and things are calm.
3. Everyone sleeps in their own crib or bed, always. I believe the first time you deviate from this you've made sleeping in your bed an option for them. So just don't ever start doing it.
4. Daycare happens, but stay the course. I remember my oldest came home and shared that friends cried at nap or screamed during storms at school. She wondered why. I just asked her why she thought they were crying, and she said she didn't know. I used the opportunity to reaffirm that storms aren't scary and we talked about how she can help her friends understand there is nothing to be afraid of and that everything is going to be ok.
5. Find and share the peace of sleeping through storms. I love a storm and find sleeping through them to be peaceful; I tell this to my children. I have peace in my faith and trust God. I share this with my children. We have no reason to fear for he is with us.
My father-in-law lives with us and he has told the girls he has a CD of thunderstorms he plays at night to help him sleep.
My husband loves to stand on the porch during a storm and watch God's beautiful light show.
I love that my garden and flowers are getting the water they need and how it smells after a storm. I love the pitter-pat of rain on the roof and the roar of thunder.
We just create a culture of storm lovers in our home. I feel so blessed lying here listening to some of the loudest thunder I've heard in my life, knowing my children are sound asleep, and that they feel safe, calm, confident, and protected.
I pray one, some, or all of these tips can bring you and your sweet children peace during storms.
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