What do you do with your toddler/preschooler when it is storming?

[lmwbasye]

So normally when there is a thunderstorm, DS1 (3 1/2) sleeps with DH and I. He is terrified of them (understandably). Well, my problem now is that these are occurring every night almost and with DH deployed, I'm losing out on my time to catch up and be on my own for some "down time" (like laundry, LOL) because I'm laying in bed with DS. Long story short, I'm going crazy since I'm not getting time to myself at all.

So, my question is, do you keep your DC in their own beds or with you? Do you let them just stay up and run around, or do you lay in bed with them?

Any ideas?

TIA!

[blisstwins]

My children share a room and that helps. If yours do not I would offer to let them sleep together. If not, and if you do not have a tight schedule the next day, I would let them stay up a little. When my children are really crazy we do make them go to bed in their room, but we promise they can come snuggle when mom and dad go to bed and we make good on that. I would not have the patience for what you are doing and my DH is here. Wishing you the best.

[brittone2]

DS went through a year of major fear from about 2.5-3.5 after lightning struck a tree *right* next to our house. He would shake uncontrollably :(

We let him come into bed with us (he was still cosleeping until he turned 3 anyway). He liked to cover his entire head, the poor thing. To block out the sound he sometimes liked to listen to our iPods.

Now that he's 4, he is much less fearful unless we are outside. It was just storming here a few hours ago and we kept busy reading and painting, and that was enough for him.

eta: we also do books on CD...stuff from Greathall productions. You can also hit up free sites like storynory.com and similar. He'll listen to those, but they don't block out the sound entirely, obviously. It might be another option for you though.

[gatorsmom]

My boys share a room and I make sure that I turn on their white noise a little louder than usual when a storm is scheduled for that night. Also, I give them a flashlight in their bed to play with in case the electricity goes out (they would not be happy if their nightlight wasn't working).

Of course, if it is really storming then I freak out and drag all 4 of the munchkins to the basement. I hate storms too.