What to do when a weather storm hits

Here’s to hoping everyone stayed safe during Tuesday night’s wind storm.

It’s a good opportunity to look at how we prepare for such a situation – for next time, of course.

Here are a few things you can do to ease your own mind, and the minds of your little ones:

1)    Stay calm. Your kids are expecting you to be the calm in the room. They can and will pick up on your anxiety. So, put on a face that says: “Everything is going to be OK,” even if you’re not sure it will be.

2)    Make sure you’re prepared. Have enough food and water, as well as candles, flashlights and batteries on hand. It’s always a good idea to stay stocked up on diapers and wipes as well.

3)    Talk about a power outage in advance. Your kids will be most at ease if they know what the plan is. Make sure and talk through what a power outage is and why it happens. It’s also a pretty good idea to keep a flashlight in each bedroom in the house.

• An editor by day, Scott Mayes is also dad to Matthew, Micah and Nathan. He’s a high school parent, a youth basketball dad and changes diapers. He thinks things run much smoother when there are actual lights on in the home.