Dealing with minor adversity
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| Mon, 11-12-2007 - 11:33pm |
We had a windstorm and the power was out for 12 hours today. One of my teens woke up and threw a fit about how if they did a better job cutting the limbs we wouldn't have an outage, etc. Of course, what he was really upset about was not being able to play video games and watch football. I was unsympathetic and basically told him to take a chill pill but then I got a bit irritable because DS broke a glass on the wood floor and it shattered all over the carpet and of course we had no way to clean up the carpet part.
Last year our power was out in November for 3 straight days and then in December for 5 straight days. For us, this meant no water (no showers or flush) or electricity but we do have a wood stove.
During last year's outages we all got very weary but I had hoped it made us appreciate what we have and learn to cope with a bit of adversity. It made us closer as a family when we drove home and saw a few streetlights and we were all hooting and hollering that the power was back. We take for granted having what are luxuries in other parts of the world and even in the U.S. I think my DS had a momentary lapse of maturity this morning but he did come out of it and make the best of it. I hope next time he (and I!) can deal with it a bit better.
How do your kids cope? What can we as parents do?

I could see both my DD16 and my DH having the same reaction (and maybe me, too, depending on the situation) - a short term "temper tantrum" and then a recovery. I wouldn't worry about it too much with your DS - it's more the long term "copiing" that's important, not the momentary burst.
(((HUGS))) to all of you with the power outage - hope things are running smoothly now!
Sue, mom to Leah and Seth
We find it an adventure.