Livin' La Vida Luna y Luca
Tornado Watch 🌪️
I was on a routine call this past Tuesday when Tornado Watch notifications started bombarding my phone.
I ended the call and dug a little deeper into the notifications.
I immediately recognize this as one of those situations where the probability of it being a nothing-burger is just about as good as the probability that we'll be without power for 3 days.
What do you do in these situations?
I chose to grab the kids & figure out next steps when I got back home. During my 4-minute drive to their school, the sky turned completely black. Ok...it's 3pm...
I get there, and the school is locked. That's weird. Obviously, the door into the school is always locked, but this time the exterior door into the vestibule is locked.
I'm now alternating between knocking at full force and doing that creepy stalker thing where you try to look into a glass door by making your hands into binoculars.
Something about a fixed physical barrier between my kids and me felt off.
"They're not allowed to let the kids out! A dad I don't know is yelling from his car. "They just sent a message in the ProCare app!"
"When did you get here?" I asked, actually surprised someone beat me to the school.
"A minute ago."
"Did you call?" I asked.
"No. I just saw the text."
I called. The school director picked up. "Hey, can you send Luna and Luca out?"
"No one can leave the school as per the fire department."
"What did the fire department say about people coming in?" I asked.
"They.... didn't say anything... about that."
"Okay, let me in."
2 other dads come in with me.
All 3 of us are visibly confused by the current state of the school.
There are ~100 <6-year-olds sitting along the hallway walls with their heads tucked between their knees. They're carefully placed in front of solid walls and doors while avoiding glass windows between the hallway and classrooms.
Some kids are crying. Some kids are laughing. Some kids know they're in a Tornado Watch, many others have no idea what a Tornado even is.
Luca's friends see me and start shouting, "Lucaaaa, your daddy is here!!!"
Less than a second later, Luca is wrapped around my right leg. Further down the hall, I see Luna smiling while monopolizing her teacher's lap.
I make my way to the end of the hall and sit down with both kids in front of a classroom door.
"Let's go home, daddy." They both say.
"We can't go home. We have to stay with your friends until the Tornado Watch is over."
The storm passed, and to my knowledge, there was very little to no damage.
I sat on that floor for all of 15 minutes before the school director came over to let me know we could leave. At which point, the rest of the school carried on as usual.
It was most definitely a nothing-burger event from start to finish. But I'm still thinking about it all these days later.
I was scared. To top off the uncertainty, Dia was on the train home from work. She hasn't been to the office all summer, and the one day she chose to go in ended with a Tornado Watch.
My mind is probably making a mountain out of a molehill, but there are a few things I don't want to forget or take for granted from this experience.
- I'll never regret taking the cautious route when it comes to L&L
- I'm so grateful I have the freedom to break off at a moment's notice. I couldn't help but wonder why more parents didn't make it to the school in those 20 minutes. Not in a judgey way, but in a "if shit really hit the fan..." let's not even complete that sentence kinda way.
- I'm far from a perfect dad, but I'm doing something right. I was on the verge of tears listening to other kids cry for their parents because they were scared. Meanwhile, my kids are having the time of their lives because if I'm there, nothing will happen to them.
Last, but not least, I'd like to give props to the school. They may feed our kids too many packaged foods, drop the ball on important communication, and even suffer from high turnover, but they nailed this Tornado Watch protocol. 👏🏽
Special s/o to Mr. J, the school's receptionist. When he noticed a pattern of crying building up, he stood in the middle of the school and performed some classic nursery rhymes for everyone to sing along to. A wonderful distraction. 👌🏼