There’s no question about it: March came roaring in like a pride of lions for all of us here in New England. The slew of Nor’easters — one piggybacking on another — has punctuated each week with exclamation points galore. They’ve had us all — especially mothers — begging for spring to make an appearance soon. We are in survival mode, trying to keep our families safe, warm, and entertained during these last few weeks of crazy winter.
But just as we turned the calendar into this wacky month, a major storm ushered in a new kind of parenting challenge for me — a multi-day power outage that displaced us from our home, mainly because we had no heat. After going through this minor though scary and unexpected ordeal, I have truly come to sympathize so much more with the many parents around the world who face major natural disasters and inclement weather on a regular basis, and who ascend to great peaks to maintain the wellbeing of their families. We, as mothers, strive to keep our kids warm, fed, and safe at all times, and natural disasters make us lose control over this.
As a mother with three kids under age 5 — including a 4-month-old — in my house, the thought of them freezing was scary enough for me.
Since I hear power outages are pretty common on the South and North Shores (we moved to a coastal town on the South Shore five months ago), and I have a feeling this might not be the last time this challenge arises, I thought I’d share a few tales and tips on our experience.
When the power went out, my family ventured out on an unexpected staycation in Boston.
Something I had always wanted to do with our kids was stay in a hotel in Boston and explore the city by walking, with our home base never far away. (Side note: My hope was to do this not during the winter and not until my kids were all much older.)
When our house started to significantly cool down on day 2 of the power outage, we packed up our things in the dark and sought to stay at the first place where we could find availability, showing up unshowered, exhausted, and so thankful for the heat. The kids were beyond thrilled — a pool! Bell carts to ride! We all get to sleep in the same room! And I thought for a second that it could truly be a serendipitous adventure. After settling in, we walked to the Children’s Museum (which accepted my unused library passes from two weeks earlier — score!), participated in a fun pirate scavenger hunt run by the hotel, and got to see the cool musical see-saw exhibit in the Seaport. What a fun, unplanned way to spend a Saturday! (I thought.) However, the romance of this was soon squashed when…
I made a rookie potty-training mistake, even though this is my second go-around.
My middle child, who will be 3 next month, was about 90% potty-trained before the power went out. Once at the hotel, he asked to use the bathroom in the lobby, then used the bathroom in our room multiple times as well. Confident that he would keep up the amazing progress, I packed one extra pair of pants and underwear when we went to the Children’s Museum. Upon our arrival, we visited the bathroom twice within the first 15 minutes; both times he used the toilet efficiently (and then insisted on washing his hands for five minutes afterward). But, not long after, we went through that extra set of clothes pretty quickly, and I was left scrambling to figure out which pair of pants was the least dirty/wet to put on him for the walk back to the hotel.
Note to self: Next time, pack twice as many pairs of underwear and pants!
We were able to have lots of quality time as a family of five in a 400-square-feet room…
Playing with Legos with Boston’s skyline in the background, pretending to make calls on the landline, “working” at the desk — it was all fun and games until around 1 a.m. on our last night, when my middle son, sleeping between my husband and I, rolled toward me, started coughing, and then began spewing an orange substance all over the bed and all over both of us. And he did this three more times throughout the night, demanding that we give him a bath in the midst of it all. When we requested new sheets and tried to send the soiled sheets out, the poor soul collecting them looked horrified — but who wouldn’t at 3 a.m.? Fun fact: The stomach bug passed through almost everyone in my family the next week. Never had my parenting mettle been tested as greatly as it was that night.
Fortunately, we were back in our (47 degree) house the next day, and the fantastic National Grid linemen were amazing to restore power to so many people who lost it in my area. Despite this hiccup, I’ve come to realize how truly fortunate I am to have a home with heat and power.
And as a nice surprise? My middle child is now fully potty-trained — I think his time trying out toilets in Boston pushed him to the finish line!
