Helping kids navigate the fear and uncertainty of wildfires.
By Ken Druck, Psychology Today, Image: Unsplash on Crowdstack tool, January 10, 2025
Years ago, many of my friends and neighbors were under siege by 70-mile-per-hour Santa Ana winds and wildfires, decimating their homes and obliterating their sense of safety and security. Terrifying reports and pictures of people running for their lives, burned-out homes, and tearfully devastated families who had lost everything flooded the media and captured the heart of our nation. Like those at the epicenter of the wildfires terrorizing our neighbors a few hours north today in Los Angeles, many of us were in survival mode. Stuffing precious valuables into my SUV as flames raged out of control on the horizon near my home was terrifying. For our friends whose homes were being reduced to ash and had lost everything, it was inconsolably devastating.
As grown-ups, we draw upon the experience and know how to compartmentalize/put even the worst things, like wildfires, earthquakes, and school shootings, in perspective. Kids, on the other hand, find themselves defenseless against emotions like fear and anxiety. We try to help them cope by setting good examples and talking about the parts of life that are sad and tragically unsettling. Here are a few more things that we, as parents, grandparents, friends, teachers, and communities, can do to help our kids deal with what's happening.
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