Are Your Children Afraid of Natural Disasters?

We see it on the news and sometimes in our own neighborhoods. Natural disasters such as floods, hurricanes, earthquakes, power outages and storms can wreak havoc on friends and family at a moment’s notice.  Have you taken the time to sit down and talk with your children about these emergencies?  As an adult, you may well be aware of a preparedness plan and what you would do in many events. Though most of us would agree that we are grossly underprepared for the unexpected.

Prepare NOW for Natural Disaster

When we formulate plans and actionable steps while involving our children, we are giving them the knowledge needed so they won’t have to be afraid. All too often, we figure that preparedness is an adult conversation. Thus we fail to realize that it causes anxiety and fear when children don’t know what to do.

In our home, we have made it a family exercise to have a preparedness plan that the children can take in the event of an emergency. We go over what to do in the event of a power outage by playing scenario games.  Our children have come up with fun ideas for snacks and meals that don’t involve using power. The children love to be involved in testing out our stash of flashlights; making sure we have batteries and other forms of alternative power for lighting. For some of you, the conversation could continue when discussing heat sources. Often our children do not realize that without power we have no furnace. As expected, this can become a problem in the winter months. So we have discussed alternate ways to stay warm and had fun with this.

Discussion and Preparedness for a Natural Disaster Alleviates Fear

We have taken this topic and instead of creating an atmosphere of fear, our children are now seeing a side of adventure and learning. We have a disaster preparedness plan for many possible natural events and our children are confident in their roles. Once we began this process though, we realized that it wasn’t something we wanted to keep for ourselves. We decided that most families would agree this is a great idea, but often people are unsure where to start. So we were sure to include components of preparedness into our Skill Trek program so that learning some of these skills becomes seamless. By doing this we also feel that the conversation easily becomes a family conversation and activity that can remove fear and anxiety; replacing it with adventure and helpful anticipation.

We know you will find these life skills helpful in your family as well so be sure to check out all of our preparedness topics within the Skill Trek program today.