Tips For Parents During Hurricane Season
Tips For Parents During Hurricane Season
A simple guide for parents with young children to help you get through a hurricane or tropical storm as stress-free as possible.
Written by The Stay Sane Mom Staff | See Comments | Updated 11/17/2021
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We as Americans can tend to forget just how vast a country we’re blessed to live in from time to time. And while this provides fantastic opportunities for local travel and exploring, we also forget that not every state enjoys the same climate.
This means that the thought of an earthquake could be terrifying to Floridians, while Californians are not always sure why you’d live in a state with something called a hurricane season at all.
That’s why we’ve put together a simple guide for parents with young children to help you get through a hurricane or tropical storm as stress-free as possible. Staying safe at home is essential at the best of times, but more so during scary times.
So if you’re moving to a state that’s prone to hurricanes or storms or if you’re just traveling through one, you’ll find some good advice here.
Knowledge is Power
Now, you will know your children better than anyone so adjust this advice as necessary. We can sometimes think that when dealing with potentially tricky or intimidating topics to our children, taking the “less is more” approach with information is the right thing to do. Still, you will know your children better than anyone, so change this advice as required, but comes to something like hurricanes or storms, we find that talking to your kids about hurricanes and what they may experience during the storm is helpful. When kids know what to expect, its impact when it arrives is somewhat mitigated, and they feel more in control of what’s happening around them.
Tell them that it’s going to get loud and there’ll be a lot of wind and use encouraging phrases for the thunder, like “it’s just God moving the furniture,” or whatever works for your family circumstance.
Pack "Go" Bags for Each Child
Packing go-bags for each of your children in advance (and if they’re old enough, involve them in it) is a great way to give them a “hands-on” feeling about the approaching storm. Be sure to pack some of their favorite toys, books, and games (you may need to invest in double purchases here), extra medication, especially if they are asthmatic or have allergies, and be sure and work in a snack or two as well.
You’ll want some toiletries as well as a spare toothbrush, toothpaste, sanitizer, hand wipes, etc.
Practice Hurricane Details
The adage of forewarned is forearmed is true on so many levels, and practicing a drill for a hurricane will help your kids feel in control and less anxious. They’ll also know what to do if you or your partner couldn’t be with them at the time for whatever reason.
Prep Your House
If you’ve just moved into a storm-prone state or you’ve moved house within a heavy hurricane state, you’ll want to make sure that your home is as weatherproof as possible, and you can involve your kids in your inspection. So you want to make sure that your roof is correctly built and solid with no pre-existing damage or significant wear and tear; you’ll also want to check that each room has a hurricane proof window and that you have a space within the home that is especially secure.
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The Stay Sane Mom Staff
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Occasionally we post blogs that are a team effort from The Stay Sane Mom staff. Fear not, these are still up to our quality standards, they just don't come from any one person (rather the team at large). As my 4-year-old says, teamwork makes the dream work.