PLEASE Don't Lie To Kids Who Kringe At Thunder and Lightning

I have never been one to be afraid of thunderstorms or lightning unless it the wind gets so bad that you could not see off the porch and then it gets a bit scary but I don't freak out or anything. When our daughter was growing up we tried to teach her not to be afraid either and we always tried to explain things to her as best we could.

This is not my video.

video by cheliman1

 But in doing home daycare I have heard it all. Some of my daycare kiddos just freak out when it storms. I have everything from them telling me to shut the blinds to them saying that we have to all stop what we are doing and sit on the floor in the middle of the room and be quiet to one saying that we don't have tornado's in Ohio because a long time ago everyone was nice to the gypsies so they won't allow tornado's here. And oh, heaven forbid the electric go out as it did on Monday. I had screeches galore.

We always explained the electric going out to our daughter like a lamp being unplugged. The wind would blow and unplug our house from the electric poles somewhere and we would have to wait for the electric company to come and fix it. We would even show her what we were talking about by plugging in a lamp and grabbing the cord and swaying it back and forth the the wind would if it were blowing. It would work out really great for us when the lamp would just flash of and then back on. We would even take her outside and show her where the wires come out of our house. After we did that, it seemed to calm her down. I have done this with my daycare kiddos a few times and has really helped them out. I just wish the parents would back me up on this one and give up on the "God is up there bowling again" theory.

So, before you give your kids some crazy story about thunderstorms and lightning think about where they may be someday when they happen. Kids sometimes don't realize it but they have to tact and don't mean to upset smaller kids but it does happen, trust me. I had some laugh the other day when the little Miss came up with the "We can't have tornado's here because a long time ago everyone was nice to the gypsies so they won't allow tornado's here." I am not fond of being the middle man and having to come up with explanations without lying.