Day 3- There's a Storm a Brewin'

As there are thunderstorms popping up throughout the area I live in it got me thinking, I used to love storms. The bigger the better. Thunder boomers I call them. Thunder, lightening, the steady down pour of rain. Don't ask me why I used to like them. I still kind of do, although now, a part of me feels anxious when I know one might be coming. I'm checking the radar. I'm checking for warnings, when it will be here, what are they calling for, how bad is it going to be? So what changed? Asperger's.

It all started in January? February? IDK. An early storm ripped through the Midwest causing tornadoes to rip through downstate Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, and I'm sure other states as well. This obviously sparked discussions at school between the teacher and the students that caused Grace a lot of stress and anxiety. I won't go into details because I'm sure she wouldn't appreciate it being out there for the world to know about. Needless to say it caused her to hyper focus on storms/tornadoes. We were due another round of possible tornado producing storms a day or two after that. Grace was obsessing over this, she was convinced our town would be leveled. She was worried about going to school because what would they do? There are too many windows! Where would they go? How would they be safe? What about her animals at home? I needed to make sure that all the animals were taken to the basement while she was at school. But not the bedroom with windows. We can't be in a room with windows.

Thankfully that storm slipped around our town like we were in a protective bubble. I think the universe knew we just couldn't take it that day. I was hoping she'd forget the incident at school, she'd forget the discussion, but no, it seems the fear is here to stay for now. So tonight, instead of sleeping upstairs in her room she asked if she could sleep in the basement because there could be tornadoes tonight. While we're only due for possible thunderstorms, whatever she needed to do to feel safe was fine with me. She was passed out well before her normal bedtime and hopefully she'll sleep through any thunder boomers. I'm still torn, to me thunder is soothing, I love a good storm, but now that I know it stresses out my daughter so much, how can I ever find them soothing again?