You Can Go Home Again! Parents Families.com

Greetings from New Orleans! After two years and two months, Tyler and I are finally back home in New Orleans. Okay, we’re not in our house but we are in New Orleans to stay. We arrived Friday and are staying at a hotel until my house is complete. It’s coming along slowly but the work being done is excellent. The house looks better than it did when I bought it eight years ago!

Returning to a city that has suffered a major disaster like Katrina is something that you have to experience for yourself to really understand. When you have kids, especially young kids, the adjustment is even harder. Although Tyler has been looking forward to coming home for quite some time now, I noticed a few days before we left and since we’ve been here, he’s been acting up more. This is his way of dealing with the change. On the one hand, he’s excited but on the other hand, he’s nervous. He was nervous about starting a new school today. Last night he kept saying that he hoped he made friends. He also said he didn’t like being the new kids. And when I dropped him off this morning, he wasn’t his normal talkative self. His teacher, Sr. Ann Michelle, had to practically reach down his throat and pull a “good morning” out.

Parents need to remember that when kids have experienced trauma they need time to adjust. And no matter how they might keep up a brave front, they may still have fears lurking below the surface that may come out in different ways. For instance, last night it took Tyler two hours to get to sleep because he said he couldn’t sleep in the bed alone. Now mind you we’re in a hotel separated only by a nightstand but still he didn’t want to sleep alone. I’ve been running a lot since I got here- getting his uniforms and school supplies (and a brand new car!) so I was tired and wanted to sleep alone. But I knew that his need to sleep in the bed wth me was probably related to his fear about starting school today. I told him everything would be okay and if he couldn’t get to sleep by the time I finished hot curling my hair he could sleep in the bed with him. Somehow just knowing that he could count on me for comfort gave him the peace he needed to fall fast to sleep. And we both got a good night’s rest.