Wednesday, September 10, 2008

A Storm of Fun?

by Kelly

I am awesome! I am truly, utterly and awesomely awesome! I am so awesome, in fact, that I must share my awesomeness with you. Last Saturday when Tropical Storm Hanna came through, I ruled the universe. At least to my kids.

You see, my young sons were less then enthusiastic about the prospect of losing power to the storm. My superhero husband and I tried to assure the boys that there wasn’t really anything to be nervous about. We explained the reality that we may indeed lose power but that they would be fine. It would just be dark, but we were going to survive a night in darkness. It went well and the fellas calmed down. We had a wonderful dinner. We played the Spiderman 3 version of Sorry! (why am I always assigned to be Sandman?). The kids’ favorite pajamas were fresh from the dryer. It was a truly great family night. The boys were feeling confident, secure and sleepy.

Then it happened.

The power blinked.

In an instant, our peaceful environment was shattered by screaming. It blinked! It didn’t go out! Blinked! But still they freaked out, big time. My husband scooped the boys into a bear hug and I struggled to find the solution to this issue, fast.

Transcript of my thoughts:

OK. OK. OK.

Think, Mommy.

Something batter-powered? Flashlights! Aha!

But we only have one! NO!!!!

Give flashlight to 5-year-old who is still screaming.

What else makes light?

Then it hit me - the stroke of genius that created an “Awesome Mommy Moment.“ You know, those moments of parental clarity that will solve the problem at hand, and be a fun memory-making experience for your kids? They’re rare (for me at least), but when they happen, there’s nothing like it. It’s like a runner’s high for parents.

The magic answer: glow sticks. GLOW STICKS!!!!! Beautiful in its simplicity isn’t it? ?

We stock up on these every May and replenish the supply in July. You see, we use them in the kids’ birthday party guest gift bags. With so many little guests, and some with allergies, glow sticks are perfect. We use them through the summer at night. We attach string to the loop and the kids swing them around for hours.

Glow sticks make the dark fun!

Glow sticks were the answer.

We strung them up and turned off almost every light. With the lights almost totally out, the absence of the rest would hardly be noticeable. The boys were over the moon with delight. The house looked so cool too! Like the first time you turn on the lights on the Christmas tree. It was beautiful.

Needless to say, this experience has taught me a couple of things, like I should actually pack an Emergency Supply Kit.

The most important thing I learned was that the boys need to see certain situations as an adventure of sorts, rather than a really scary, uncontrollable event. We can control how we, as parents, react to things. As long as we are out of physical harm’s way, it’s ok to make riding out the storm a fun event. And we did.

To quote my sons, “It was AWESOME!“

Oh! And we never lost power. Go figure.