Kate - posted on 06/17/2012 ( 1 mom has responded )
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My 5 year old has recently started having high anxiety before thunderstorms. When she notices there are clouds and the wind picks up, but not raining yet, she immediately wants to go inside. She starts wringing her hands, crying, and constantly asking when is the rain going to get here and when is it going to leave. Last night at my sister in laws house there were some darker clouds rolling in, it was starting to get windy, but not too bad. She started crying, jumping up and down and said that everyone had to go inside right now because the storm was coming. I took her inside and sat her down talked calmly to her, asked her what was making her scared, tried distracting her by talking about other things/ doing other things. When I told her I wanted to go outside to tell daddy something she freaked out! I told her mommy wouldn't be going outside if it was raining and that everyone would have come inside if it was. She is going to kindergarten in the fall and I'm worried that when there is a thunderstorm while she is at school she will have a meltdown. I don't know what else to do. It breaks my heart to watch her when she is like this!
Thank you in advance for any advice.
BTW, when the rain finally arrived, about 90 minutes later, she was fine. Happy, laughing, and playing with her cousins.
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