Preparing for Cyclone Marcia

Well here we go again……or so it feels like it.  Tropical Cyclone Marcia is heading our way and it looks like we are in for a lot of rain, #holdontightmarciaiscoming.  Lets hope there is not a repeat of 2012!

I know that for some of you this event will bring up some bad memories.  I know of some children who have only recently stopped thinking that each time it rained their house would be flooded.  Lets hope this does not happen to them again.

Both my children who are 7 and 10 (tomorrow!) are quite anxious about the impending cyclone.  I have spent last night and today trying to reassure them and prepare them for what might happen tonight.  Given their level of anxiety I thought I’d share how I have been preparing for cyclone Marcia and attempting to help ease their anxiety at the same time.

Firstly, it was not me who alerted them to the idea that a cyclone was coming and to be scared about it, but that of another well meaning adult.  So, with that in mind, yesterday afternoon I was confronted with two very anxious kids about what was going to happen in the coming days.  I sat down with them and calmly explained that there was a cyclone coming and showed them on a map where it would cross the coast.  I explained that cyclones are big storms that are very windy, sometimes so windy that they rip roofs off houses.  I told them that the cyclone would come near us, but not close enough to do any damage to our house and that it would be really, really windy.  I told them I was not telling them this to scare them but just to make them aware of what will happen tonight and that they should think of this like a fire drill at school.  They have fire drills to be prepared in case of a fire.  I told them the cyclone would not hurt our house but that we still need to know about it, just like at school you need to know what to do in case of a fire even though there has never been a fire at school.

Fast forward to this afternoon and I have told them again that tonight the big storm will come and that at worst our windows will probably rattle and shake but that we will be very safe in our house.  We have decided that we’re going to have a slumber party in the spare room.  The kids are very excited about setting up the room and are bringing in chairs so we can make tents out of sheets to go over our beds.

I’ve talked to them about the possibility that we may lose our power and that this will mean that our tv, lights, fridge, fan, oven and internet will not work and we will not be able to charge our ipads!  I’ve told them that we will have to cook all our food on the bbq and that we must not constantly open and close the fridge…….so I think I’ve covered everything!

We have started to make a list of all the games we can play and the things we can do over the next few days if the power goes out.  So far our list looks like this:

• board games
• cards
• I spy
• craft
• homework
• play dough
• reading stories
• telling stories
• writing stories
• playing make up games

You can find more wet weather ideas for kids in our Rainy Day Activities blog.

I think that by trying to be as honest as I can with them and making this weather event more of an adventure than something to be scared of I have so far successfully eased the anxiety that they felt yesterday afternoon.  They were most curious about what things would and would not work if the electricity was off.  I think just by having this conversation with them prior to the power possibly going off will be of great benefit, they will at the very least know what to expect, even if at the time they find it very frustrating.

So presently I have two very excited kids who are busy making a huge mess in the spare room.  I’ll let you know how we go on the other side in the morning.