Tonight I had the privilege of spending an hour or so with our two youngest local grandchildren: L, a girl, is 7 years old and B, a boy, is 4 years old.
Both were pretty chatty. I asked if they had seen the interesting clouds this evening. They said they had. I asked them if they knew that those clouds were the end of Hurricane Hermine. They did not. This brought on a conversation about hurricanes, wind damage, water damage, house damage.
B came over to stand beside me and was weeping. He asked if people were hurt when the wind and rain hurt their homes. Would you believe a 4-year-old might have concerns like that? I did not have any idea.
It took some major back-pedaling, some pictures and explanations about erosion from the weather page on the computer, and even then he was not totally convinced. ESPECIALLY since L brought up tornadoes and everything getting sucked up into them and whirling around and then falling back to the earth.
Fortunately about that time some "strangers" showed up to talk with us and we were able to address other topics, then go to Grandpa's office for a bit of chocolate. AND L told him it was okay because no one was really hurt. I did not know if that was correct so I kept my trap SHUT!!
SO---here is the tip that this old grandma learned today---know who you are talking to and what kinds of fears lurk in the backs of their minds. I knew about the spiders causing nightmares. I did not know his heart was so tender and concerned, and his mind so sharp, that he would even THINK about hurricanes hurting people.
You learn something every day.
Great story. Thanks for sharing
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