Sanity in times of Duress

Ok, the time has come.

 Some disaster happened, you have been forced to evacuate your home.  So now you are displaced and don't know how long before you can return.  How do you occupy your time for, say, the first 72 hours?

At first you will be just finding a place to settle. Then you will want to get in touch with family members not immediately with you (you have a plan and equipment for that, right?).  Of course you will be monitoring local police and news stations (and you have some way to listen to emergency stations too, correct?). Hopefully you will sleep for 20 to 24 hours of those 72.  Then what? 

 The answer is very dependent to your home/family situation.

If you have young children, they may be quite scared, or they may take this event in stride and think of it as an adventure.  But either of those will wear off and they will want something to do.

The next thing to consider is how electronics dependent you or your children are.  If they feel the best quality time of the day is alone in their room with facebook, you have two things to consider:

#1 do you currently have an internet connection?  Laptops and many tablets rely on nearby WI FI connections.  In an emergency, you can easily find yourself hunkering down somewhere with no internet connection at all!



This goes the same for smart phones.  The cell system may get completely tied up or eventually the phone's battery runs out.  Either way, smart phone entertainment is a temporary thing.

#2 do you have backup power for any of these electronic toys?  Already mentioned with the cell phones, but most of these toys have between 2 and 8 hours of battery before they go belly up.  Ipads and older model Kindles have much better battery life as long as you keep the WI FI turned off.

So electronic toys may provide temporary entertainment, but will all eventually fail until you can get back to dependable power and/or internet connections.

That means we all need to find other forms of entertainment.  (Oh man!)  Yes just sitting and waiting can make a day seem the longest in your life.  (I know, I have spent many, many hours waiting for airplanes... sometimes I had things to do, sometimes I didn't).

We recommend keeping some age appropriate games handy to help pass the time.

There are so many to choose from.  They can be very  old, tried and true games or the latest game craze.





Card games can be a lot of fun.  If you only have a deck of cards with you, it is always possible to teach your family a game they have never played before.

Some card games require a special deck, others take a standard poker deck.  But either way, decks of cards don't take up much space.

Age appropriate books are also great.  We have been in the habit of reading to our children just before bed.  Reading and listening to someone else read are two separate skills.

We have read to children and teens alike at home, on vacation, during camp out with scouts, in many places.  I read Johnathan Livingston Seagull to a group of 14-15 boys around a campfire.  We stopped half way through for the night. The next night one of the tough football type guys asked, "Are you going to read us more of that book?" Read to each other, share the story together.

Another option is using the games we played in our childhood.  Active games like "No bears are out tonight," "Kick the can," etc. These are pieces of an earlier time that we are afraid we are losing. The good thing about many of these games is they don't require you to pack anything at all. Just remember to use them.

Playing games or reading together are great ways to get your mind off your troubles.  And it promotes good family interaction as well.


Now, is your family going to jump right in and say, "Thanks, Mom/Dad for bringing something we've never tried before to help entertain us.  Let's do it!"  Maybe, maybe not.  They may react instead of respond. But even if they resist, most kids will come around.

Remember to try to use age appropriate games, books and activities. If you have a big spread in your children's ages, you'll have to adapt, maybe have an older child help a younger one with a puzzle or read together.

Perhaps part of your preparation would be well spent in some of these activities with your family regularly at home before any trouble comes.

On Sundays, we have our grown children and their families come visit and we usually play at least one card game or board game each time.

So, these are not required items in an emergency kit, but they can make a huge difference if you practice a little now.

Any favorites you'd like to share?