Have Your Children Become Afraid of the Weather by All the Hurricane Coverage?

Are your kids or grandchildren being affected by all the coverage of the devastation done by the recent hurricanes? I had never even given it a thought until this weekend. My seven year old grandson Zander seemed a bit off all weekend. He was always looking at the clouds and seemed concerned whenever a light breeze would blow. My wife and I were both scratching our heads trying to figure out what was wrong with the boy.

I had thought he had spent too much time playing video games with his friends and was just kind of zombied out from playing but it became obvious that was not it. He came inside and would quit riding his bike whenever the wind picked up at all. I had told him to quit being a big baby, like a lot of men do, and to just get outside and play because there was nothing to be afraid of. I then realized that he may have been around or just overheard all the stories of disaster from the recent hurricanes. I asked him if that was what was going on and he confessed that it was. He has seen so many stories of loss and was afraid that could happen here too. I felt terrible for not understanding and figuring this out earlier. He has every reason to be concerned and have questions. I talked to him about weather and answered any questions I could and more than anything, understood what he was feeling.

I know that ever since the tornado in Windsor there are folks who starts to tremble a bit every time it clouds up. Weather can be scary for anyone but we really need to understand the fears of our children and teach and comfort them. Pay attention to your kids and what they are feeling and maybe sit down and talk to them about the weather what can happen and what can't.