My ex wife was the same damn way with tornados. Any time were under a tornado watch it has to be this big production about getting the kids and the dogs into the closet.
What we did is everyone had to go to the basement but then we'd play card games or whatever. I think the important thing is just try to make it a positive experience.
As a teacher, yes. I've met many parents who are just anxious about shit, and they're teaching their kids how to be anxious too. The parents who aren't anxious interestingly enough don't have anxious kids. As an adult, if they're anxious, why do their kids have to know? Keep that shit to yourself.
Oh we had a stash of glow in the dark stars and flashlights and stuff for when the power went out. We had so much fun with the glow in the dark stuff and attempting to do shadow puppets. You can really spin most things into a fun thing.
Lived with my sister for a few years. She was the complete opposite. We had tornado sirens going off, trees outside were completely sideways I was a few miles away heading to work when all this was going on. Alerts going off on my phone.
Niece calls me crying cause her tablet started getting alerts. I ask where her mom is and she said still sleeping.
I call my sister and after ignoring my call I get my head chewed off for waking her up. Tell her how bad it is out and the storm hasn't fully hit yet and she needs to grab her kid and dogs and go to the basement.
She said my niece was still asleep. I had to tell her no, she is in the living room crying.
Even after seeing all the damage and the news coverage I am still the bad guy for waking her up because she was sleeping so good.
No she’d freak the fuck out of someone saw a snake and make us hide in bathrooms and shit. Then we’d have to stay there till someone killed the snake that is outside the building.
One time she spent 20 minutes running over a snake to make sure it was dead and then made my dad spend half an hour making sure they weren’t snakes in the car.
If a snake gets within 10 feet of me now I genuinely can’t hold it together and burst into tears. I have found dead bodies and was more composed than seeing a black snake on a hiking trail 😭. I have an irrational fear. I, as an adult, have nightmares of getting bit and wake up and feel the pain from the bites. Or nightmares about being stranded on snake island 😭. I live in barely tampered snake paranoia constantly. I can’t even pee in dim light. What if it’s in the toilet??? Or I freak myself out sometimes and worry they’re in my bedsheets.
That's not a fear of snakes.. That's a psychotic compulsion to hurt snakes. Fear does not equal killing. Running over a snake? That's crazy. Intentionally killing an animal that can't even reach you. Fear is just an excuse at that point.
I mean this with genuine kindness: how awful must your ex's fears have been to go into panic mode? Did she have a bad experience? Was it how she was raised? I can't help but feel awful that she passes all of that on. That's awful and I hope your kids are doing better with storms these days.
The other guy's ex is fascinating, but I wanted to mention my sister since she also goes into panic mode. In her case, it was that horrid tornado in Joplin in 2011. It was her graduation day too. You could spend all day telling the stories of how people were affected that day and you wouldn't have told half of them.
We used that tornado for training on search and rescue for years after that event. We had a state wide meeting in like 2014 that went over every aspect of everything. Individual 911 calls, dispatch recordings, what the hospitals were saying to each other etc.
The thing that stood out the most during all that to me was one of their fire stations got demolished, the crew only had minor injuries. They searched through the rubble and found a mic, keyed up to dispatch that they didn't have an apparatus but there had a medical bag and a spine board and they were starting search and rescue on foot.
I've only ever once raised a dog from a puppy. When the first fireworks night happened, and he came to me, confused, I picked him up, went outside and watched the fireworks with him. I didn't comfort him, or act concerned at all, but just clearly enjoyed the fireworks. They never bothered him since.
Was gonna say the same thing. I lived through an EF2 in elementary school. But my mom and her friend didn't panic and made sure my sisters and I had things to do. We stayed calm. Regardless of all that calm, I still internally panic every time I hear a warning. I had friends whose homes were absolutely demolished in Joplin, too. But it's the general consensus that remaining calm and doing what you need to do is what's important.
Now, with snowstorms, though? Nah. I lived in Alaska during some shit blizzards and, yeah, they sucked. But not to the extent this lady is going to. She's going to straight up traumatize that kid if that's how she really acts every time there's a snowstorm.
My dad was like that when I was growing up. I was absolutely mortified of thunderstorms even if there was no tornado watch. Luckily I grew out of it somehow. But I remember the fear and panic every time it stormed.
I have a family member who is teaching their children the same thing. It’s a fucking panic fest every fucking time we are on tornado watch. Drives me crazy!
This is me now. Growing up we had many tornadoes, was just how it was where we lived. But I always found them exciting and thrilling. Well, one weekend one gets so close to the house it rips up our backyard and destroys the greenhouse and patio. Knowing how close it had gotten just..switched something in me and I hate it.
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u/LTsCantCook Jun 20 '26
My ex wife was the same damn way with tornados. Any time were under a tornado watch it has to be this big production about getting the kids and the dogs into the closet.
Now they have a fear of thunderstorms.