Power Outage

Boom! It was around 2:45 in the morning and I was startled awake by what sounded like a very loud sound in the distance outside.

As I'm gathering my wits looking around the room I realize the power is out. The only light aside from moonlight from outside is the blinking of the smoke detector on the ceiling (which is hard wired, but has a back up battery.) It must have been the loss of all that background noise in the house that really woke me up.

I nudge my husband and tell him I heard a loud noise outside, but I only get a mumble from him and he's back to sleep. But I'm worried not about what might have happened outside, but how my two sons in the basement might react if they wake up in the dark.

When I was a kid I was terrified of the dark. I always slept with a light on. It wasn't until years as an adult I eventually broke that habit. The kids tend to leave on the light, although my oldest grew out of it, and the other two are down to just a reading light. They generally fall asleep reading in bed.

I worried they might panic if they woke up and I hemmed and hawed over what to do. I tried to listen for them, but my husband was snoring too loudly. Feeling a little annoyed after struggling to hear what might be going on in the house, I got up, grabbed a blanket and went down to the living room and settled in on the couch with my DSi and a flashlight.

Then while playing my DSi I head a conversation start up in the basement. I couldn't hear all the words, but clearly there was no alarm and they were talking about the power being out like it was no big deal. I had really underestimated them, I guess my childhood fear of the dark had influenced my thinking about how they would react.

The power came back on about a hour or so later. When the kids got up, I asked them about it. My youngest described how he couldn't see even his hand in front of his face in the dark, his voice emphasizing the drama of it, but you could see he was hamming it up. All in all, no big deal.

So the next time I get woken up by a power outage, after a quick check of the house I can go back to sleep knowing my sons can handle it. It's comforting and amazing to me that they are much more self-assured and capable than I was as a kid.