Tuesday, February 5, 2008

false alarm

Savannah's been on edge lately.
She's developed an odd fear. Or fears, I should say. I think it's just a phase of this age?? She's growing into a more analytical mind that I think tends to over analyze some of the dangers of our world that she's becoming aware of.

We had three separate "freak outs" yesterday.
First- The monthly emergency test of the tornado siren yesterday morning was a huge ordeal. I was upstairs getting dressed and heard it start, quickly followed by Savannah panicking trying to find me crying and yelling and falling apart.
Second- She had apparently been messing with her radio clock in her bedroom earlier in the morning and inadvertently set the alarm... which randomly started beeping during rest time of all times. She ran out of her room screaming, yelling for me, absolutely hysterical and frozen with fear at the top of the stairs, thinking that a fire alarm was going off.
And Third- Later on I had the tv on and they did a test of the emergency broadcast network, and yep you guessed it, she freaked.

We had some long talks (as we have before) about the fact that those sounds (minus the alarm clock LOL!) are "practice" alarms to make sure we'll be safe if there was an emergency. We talked about that if we hear the tornado siren in the morning, we should stop and think about if it's a Monday morning and they might be doing their test. And we talked about whenever she hears that siren, whenever it is, they'll always be a grown-up around to make sure things are safe.

We need to work on the fire alarm, as when she thought that's what the alarm clock was, she freaked. I have honestly never seen her so panicked. Looks like we need to talk that through and practice some fire drills so she's not so paralyzed with fear when/if she hears that. I know she's been fine with fire drills at school, so I'm not sure why she was so scared when the alarm went off in her room.

Her fears of the wind and thunder and lightning are getting worse too. We had some huge and close claps of thunder this past weekend and she came running into our bedroom screaming, and you know the saying she got the living daylights scared out of her? I had never seen that illustrated so well as that afternoon when she came tearing into our bedroom. Shaking and crying.
And now with her panicky freak-outs, Sawyer's going back and forth between copying her fright for fun, and really thinking there's cause for serious concern and legitimately freaking out himself. This is making these past few stormy days not so fun around here with two kids that cry every time we hear a rumble of thunder.

I've taken to stopping and praying with them when they're worried like that, and I'm working on making up a fun, upbeat, carefree, prayer kind of song about the storms that we can all sing during the thunder or when things make Savannah nervous. Anyone know of a good kiddish song like that??

5 comments:

K.M.L said...

Hi there! I am sorry that Savannah is having a tough time with the alarms and sirens. I don't have any fun songs....I'll ask Mike if he knows any or I'll ask some of my kindergarten teachers at school and see if they have anything. Have a great night!

jenny said...

i actually work for our county's emergency management office. i know there are some tips for kids on how to explain and deal with that type of thing - maybe i could look into it for ya. as far as a song goes - i'm drawing a blank.

Erin said...

Let me check at the church; I happen to teach 2's and 3's music. I'll see if I have some sort of "god even made the storms" kind of song.

Anonymous said...

Did you see my post today? We're dealing with the same thing, though the alarm thing isn't worrying Luke. It must be their age! He's asking me all kinds of questions about what kinds of things burn (glass, metal, wood) to see if our house is safe. And the storms...ugh. It's February. Isn't it just supposed to be snowing?

heather said...

Ooooh, thanks girls! Any extra ideas would help a ton Jen, and Erin- I would LOVE if you found a good song I could use. I know there must be something I've heard along the way, growing up in the church, but I just can't think...

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