Living through this tumultuous hurricane season has reminded me, once again, that one of our primary responsibilities as parents is to help our children feel safe. That’s easy to do when we feel safe ourselves. But when we feel vulnerable in any way, such as when we are faced with a natural disaster such as a hurricane, it is often difficult for us to assure our children, both in our words and our actions, that everything will be OK. Nonetheless, it is incumbent on us to try.
Immediately after Hurricane Harvey hit Texas with a vengeance, my friend and colleague Angela Stockman, was asked by educator friends of hers to create a website to help storm survivors help families deal with the potentially traumatic effects of living through the devastating hurricane. She reached out to me to help her curate resources for parents. Together, we created a virtual “umbrella” of support to help those and their loved ones who may be finding themselves struggling with feelings of fear, anger, sadness, loss, or even numbness.
