In anticipation of the impending storm, we felt it would be helpful to provide advice to parents how to prevent undue fear and panic among their children. With awareness that every child and situation is unique, please tailor and apply this advice accordingly.

• Convey urgency not panic. The children should know that this is a serious situation but convey it in a manner that is proportionate with the actual threat.

• Be sure you yourself are not experiencing undue dread that, in turn, you may be trying to hide. When scared or feeling threatened, children read every nuance of parents’ words, voice tones and facial expressions. They will readily detect your attempt to conceal real sentiments and that can exacerbate their fears.

• It may be helpful to look at this situation as an opportunity to teach our children reasonable precaution and safety.

• Adequately explain any changes in your home or behavior. Without excessive details and repetition, explain what a hurricane or storm is and why these precautions are being taken.

• For school age children and older, you can specify that some of your actions are in the event of something rare or highly unlikely to occur. Younger children can gently be told that these changes are not something to be scared of.

• If there is a loss of electricity and no imminent danger, you can mitigate the fears through explanations and transforming the situation into an adventure with flashlights, candles and the like.

• Have prepared non-electrical forms of entertainment, games, art activities and the like that can serve as a distraction in the event of a blackout.

• Portray this occurrence as an opportunity to spend time together as a family and use the time in some productive fashion such as discussion, studying, organizing the house, or any such activity that has been hopelessly postponed and delayed.

• Night can be a more scary time for children in general and forecasts are predicting the height of the storm over Monday night. If a child is markedly scared and needs an adult to stay with them while sleeping, please feel free to accommodate him or her but do make it clear that this is only because of the circumstances and will not be continued once the storm subsides.

• As previously noted every child and situation is unique and please feel free to contact us if we can be of any further help.

We hope and pray that everyone emerges from this storm unscathed and that we are spared any current or future danger. If you have any further questions or concerns, please feel free to contact any of the members of the Chai Lifeline Crisis Team listed below.

Dr. Norman N. Blumenthal

nblumenthal@chailifeline.org – 646-763-0627

Rabbi Yaakov Dovid Klar

jklar@chailifeline.org – 917-710-7857

Zahava Farbman, LCSW

zfarbman@chailifeline.org – 516-993-0430