I always try to nap for a while after the kids get back from school, with varying degrees of success.
I’ve developed some tactics for getting my nap time. Basically, you have to make sure the kids are well fed, saturated and have something to do. That’s their computer game/TV time too. We don’t actually have TV reception of any kind, so TV means a DVD and you have to make sure they have a long enough movie in there. Tip: get everything ready for your nap and only then press the play button.
Another thing I do is make sure the kids are very much aware of me going to be asleep. I keep repeating the “Mommy is going to have a nap now” message over and over again. Sometimes it even works.
One other thing I do is remind them under which circumstances they’re allowed to wake me up. The point of the message being, “don’t wake me up unless…” I usually come up with some funny unlikely stuff too, that the kids often take quite seriously.
So, today, on my way to bed -
Me: Dan, remember not to wake me up unless a fire breaks out or if there’s an earthquake.
Dan: Don’t worry Mom. I’ll wake you up if there’s a fire, but I can handle the earthquake myself.
Me: ???
Dan: We had an earthquake drill at school today.
At which point, he demonstrated the various positions of taking cover outside and inside and informed me that he’s been appointed as “safety assistant”.
They could not have made a better choice. Those of you who follow my tweets may have this heard this story before, but I think it’s worth repeating in the blog.
Some background for non-Israelis: Once in a while the Homefront Command conducts periodic checks for the air raid siren in your area. They always happen at 11 AM and that’s how you know they’re not for real. It doesn’t happen often, though.
A couple of weeks ago, they were testing the sirens in our town. The school teachers knew about it and told the kids in the morning, but my Dan somehow didn’t get the news. So, come 11 o’clock, he is outside in the school yard with most of the other kids in the classroom and the sirens begin to wail.
He told me later that he was scared, but mostly for his brother and for us, his parents. He was particularly worried we’d get hit by “an atom bomb” (yeah, even the kids get the news about Iran). He never lost it though – he ran for the school bomb shelter, couldn’t open the door, so he lay down on the ground, face down, and covered his head with his hand. Keep in mind the kid has just turned six two months ago.
When the sirens stopped, he ran to the school’s secretary to report the event. She was very kind, encouraged him and gave him a medal (well, a smilie sticker on his sweater but she called it a medal).
I didn’t know whether to cry or to laugh when I heard his story. Was and still is very proud of him though!
I’d love to hear from other parents about this. I know different areas have their own catastrophes – earthquakes, hurricanes, tornadoes – how do you teach your kids to be prepared?
on Feb 7th, 2010 at 4:45 pm
New blog post on IsraeliMom.org: http://bit.ly/97XyVE Be Prepared! Earthquake to Nuclear Bomb! pls RT
This comment was originally posted on Twitter
on Feb 7th, 2010 at 4:53 pm
We have an emergency supply closet full of food for several days. The schools here have lock down (person with a gun)and fire drills. Even my oldest, who is in colege, has fire drills and lockdown preparation drills.
Growing up in the middle of the cold war we used to have nuclear bomb drills too. It didn’t bother me then. But reading your story made me cry.
Elise´s last blog ..The Big Bang, Organization and Executive Functioning
IsraeliMom Reply:
February 8th, 2010 at 2:38 am
Thank you so much for sharing, Elise. I appreciate that. I know what you mean about Dan too – what broke my heart was that he picked up on the right thing to do without any official guiding. He just listened to his Dad one time after he’d returned from reserve duties in the warzone and picked it up from that, I guess. That he’s actually thought he had to use it, that was the touching part. Something too “alone” about it.
on Feb 7th, 2010 at 6:02 pm
Aren’t boys the best? I have one adult son who was 24 in December and I raised him in Montgomery, Alabama, USA, which is prone to hurricanes and tornnados. The first Wednesday of the month at noon was the siren testing and in school he learned to go to the bathroom to take cover and was taught if youare at home to take your matress with you and get in the tub and cover with the matress. I grew up in Miami , Florida so I was use to all this and really never took it seriously. I figured if I was going to die, I wanted to be comfortable and not crammed in a bathtub. We had a real tornado warning one evening during bad weather and helped him into the bathtub with mattress, etc and then I went and got in the bed & listened to the radio. My poor child was scared for life because I did that. He was bothered for years because I didn’t take the tornade siren more seriously.
IsraeliMom Reply:
February 8th, 2010 at 2:39 am
I didn’t know that about hurricanes! We’re planning a trip to Florida, probably next year, so that’s an important tip there
on Feb 8th, 2010 at 6:24 am
Great kid, just 6 years old and already aware of what to do in situations like that. I hope his school mates didn’t tease him because he thought the siren was for real?
Klaus @ TechPatio´s last blog ..Funny Pictures: Google Street View Launched In Denmark
IsraeliMom Reply:
February 8th, 2010 at 12:00 pm
Good to see you here, Klaus! No, the kids didn’t tease him or anything, so we were ok on that front.
on Feb 9th, 2010 at 5:02 am
What’s heart breaking about these stories is that our children should have to know these things – and that they do.
During the last war in Gaza and Lebanon, my then six year old was mostly worried about what to do if the sirens sounded during the 15 minute walk back from school – because of course she knew exactly what to do if it happened at any other time of day.
And when she was three, she and her 7 year old sister knew to say Shema Yisrael when we were in a terrorist attack on a bus. While the gunmen were machine-gunning us, and soldiers were screaming there was no where to run, my kids were calmly saying Shema.
How do we subliminally teach these things to our children? How do they pick them up?
And why is the world such that our innocent children who should be chasing butterflies or finger painting have to know them at all?
Mitzimi´s last blog ..The Madaba map
IsraeliMom Reply:
February 10th, 2010 at 12:09 pm
Wow, a terrorist attack on the bus you were in?? Where was that??
on Feb 9th, 2010 at 11:27 am
I was raised in the US in the 50′s and 60′s. We used to practice our own version of Nuclear War Drills, as mandated by schools. I recall in the 8th grade, during the Cuban Missile Crisis, things were extremely edgy. We practiced “duck and cover”, lol. Our conclusions was “why the heck even bother”? I mean we’re talking nuclear war, lol. Our concerns then ran to which girl to partner up with which became everyone’s favorite topic. You know, as an 8th grader, no way you wanted to go to heaven some sort of virgin or something.
Steve´s last blog ..Tree Planting Techniques – A Subtle Art