As spring/summer approaches, I always wonder if it will be the year the girls become afraid of thunderstorms.
Their first summer, they just slept right through them. In fact, they weren't even aware of them when they were awake. The only time they were affected by a storm was when we had to wake them up and carry them to the basement as sirens blared outside one late night. They were only just a bit confused.
The following year, I thought for sure they would wake up scared from passing thunderstorms. But even at 18 months, they were completely oblivious and slept or played right through them.
So it had to have been last year that they would finally call for me in the night because thunder and lightening were too scary. But at 2 1/2, they were brave little things and either slept right through or didn't care much about them. It was, at this point, that they did actually become aware of them and were surprised, more than scared, when a clap of thunder shocked us one afternoon. Their only question, what was that?
OK, so this spring, I geared myself up for consoling girls when storms rolled around. But while we've had a few already this year, it was only last night that they got just a little bit freaked out. And it wasn't the thunder and lighting, or the loud rain or the crazy wind. It was the fact that we lost power and their night lights went out. Each of them called us into their rooms because they were nervous about their lights going out. I explained what had happened (in 3 year old simplicity) and they seemed to be fine with my little science lesson. Since I couldn't tell them when the power would return, they kept calling me into their rooms to ask me to give them the explanation again. Little Pie was so worried her music wouldn't work again, but when the power finally came on around 11:30, all of us finally relaxed and went to sleep.
I'm proud of them for being so brave! (I know I wasn't as a kid!)
To date, we've had very similar experiences to yours. The girls are starting to get a little apprehensive, though. I'm pretty sure it was because of some of the early nasty weather we had this spring (March, maybe?). We were projected to have terrible tornadoes...I had the TV on (which is an extreme rarity)...and I had to straighten up the hall closet in case of emergency. Since then, when we have storms, the girls ask if I need to turn on the TV. :)
ReplyDeleteI actually think it's a bit of a conundrum...I don't want the girls to be scared, but I want them to have a healthy respect for the serious nature of weather. I'm sure it will all come with time...but for now I guess I'll just be thankful that they don't cry when it rains! ;)