Wednesday, March 25, 2009

Fires don't go near grammies

Lucy has become obsessed with fires. Apparently she has been having bad dreams where our house catches on fires and turns black. It has her super freaked out. In her dreams we evacuate to Grammie's house. She has taken to packing bags of belongings and leaving them near the exits, just in case. She tells me that the bags are packed in case we have a fire, we can grab then when we leave. (She says "grap"). She has asked us a few times if the firemen are at the station, and when it closes. Yesterday, she asked me if she could pack her bags and I could drive her to Grammie's house and drop her off when all the daycare kids leave.

She won't talk about this at all. When asked what she is afraid of, she just says she doesn't want to talk about it. When I asked her why she wants to go to Grammie's house so urgently, she just says she misses her. I asked if she would miss me and she said "I have an idea! We can both go to Grammie's house!"

I feel so bad for her. She is obviously scared to death of a fire and thinks the only fire-safe place is Grammie's house. :( She is scared to go to sleep at night and has an absolute fit if I don't make it up right away to say a no-bad-dreams-prayer with her.

I scheduled an appt with the fire station for next week. I am hoping they can put her mind at ease. Anyone else have any other ideas on how to ease her mind??

2 comments:

Unknown said...

Maybe do some fire drills with the kids, make up an evacuation plan and then practice it? We have done evacuation plans and practices with the kids, so they know exactly what they are supposed to do if they hear the smoke detector sound. I think taking her to the fire station is also a great idea!

SusieGoodness said...

We already have fire drills and evacuation plans, and they are posted on each exit. (Daycare, required by law) Hopefully the fire station will help. Maybe i should sound off the alarm for her. Normally we don't sound the alarm during our drills because my daycare girlie has a seizure disorder that is triggered by loud startling noises.. so we may have to practice with the sound on the weekend.