Lessons Through Power Outages: Lesson #6 - Lights

I think this goes without saying: without power, there aren't any lights.


What did we discover?

At night, with no moon, our house is as pitch black as the caves we once visited.  Complete and total darkness.  You can't see anything.

What else did we discover?

That every child who is afraid of the dark will start freaking out at high decibels.

Another discovery?

The panic a parent feels while trying to find out where the heck the flashlight walked off to, in pitch black, is fueled by the panic in their childrens' screams.  It also didn't help that the children who were not afraid of the dark were yelling at the others to be quiet.

Even worse is the child, who had the misfortune to be on the toilet, is crying because she can't find the door and has made a mess in the process of trying to get help.

Welcome to our first night time power outage.

Every room now has a working flashlight, tested each week, in a set location so anyone can find it.  The first time I found one out of place the children learned pretty darn fast not to do it again.  I took the kids to the store and bought each child their own flashlight to use.  They got to pick out the one they wanted, and at home I put their names on them.  These were put near their beds.  They were also cheap ones, with replacements stashed, so they could play with them and learn to use them at night.  This helped ease the fear of the scared ones.

I did find it amusing when they were checking out each others' tonsils. Though, I did have to yell at them to stop using them as light sabers... and not to blind the cat... or the dog... or me... or each other...or people pulling into the driveway...

Each bathroom now has a 180 degree camping lantern under the sink.

I bought kerosene lanterns to use in the main rooms until a child knocked one over.  I bought battery operated  touch lights to use until they were all older, because the house burning down did not appeal to me - though I have threatened to do it on occasion (fixer-upper).   I also purchased candles, lighters and battery-operated camping lanterns.

I still have the kerosene ones.  I buy oil when I remember.  We will use them if the battery powered ones die.

We also bought heavy-duty back up battery/surge protectors for all electronics.  We forgot to turn off a TV during a power outage.  When the lines were restored, the electricity surged and that TV now has issues.


Lesson #1 - Water
Lesson #2 - Cooking
Lesson #3 - Heat
Lesson #4 - Food
Lesson #5 - Sanitation