by Tara Shafer posted in Parenting

I live in the northeast where last week a nor?easter churned up the coast. The power went out right after the first pot of coffee was brewed. So there is that. It feels like a million years ago, Friday morning.
Four days later, we are still in the dark. A crisis such as this is expensive, boring, and stressful in equal measure. All the food in my refrigerator and freezer must now be tossed. My husband and I are teetering on the edge. The children are out of sorts and frustrated.
Now of course this is an opportunity to point to teachable moments. They include important life lessons such as flexibility in the face of challenge. And everything will be all right just as soon as the lights come back on. A family seeking warmth and comfort during an extended winter power outage is very much at the mercy of the better angels I see all over my social media feeds when I am on my phone squinting at it. Total strangers inviting everyone to come warm up and charge things and shower. I end up using my minivan as a phone charger and even wrote this post on it.
In much the same way as Fred Rogers, I remind my children to notice these helpers. (Even as I too start to become a little unhinged).
Before we got too cold and sought shelter with family members, it felt very Little House on the Prairie.
The kids were forced to unplug and this was not without benefits. They covered themselves in comforters and read on the sofa. That is, until it was too dark fo...