I don't know what New Years is like where you are, but here fireworks are a BIG deal. Starting about the day after Thanksgiving people start randomly "testing" them out, just to make sure they work, you know.
And then, on New Year's Eve, they let her rip. From sundown until 1 or 2 AM. Some of them are lovely. Some are noisy. And then there are the ones we call concussion bombs. They truly sound and feel like something blew up. Besides just a firework, I mean.
My daughter lives in a neighborhood where people are wildly enthusiastic about fireworks. She and the two girls are asthmatic, one of the girls is autistic. The windows are jalousies, so you can't really shut out the smoky air or dampen the sound.
The older two, ages 8 & 10 love to join the neighbors for all the excitement The younger one, who is autistic, was completely overwhelmed. She would yowl every time a concussion bomb went off. She climbed to the top bunk, pulled the covers over her head and yowled. She would/could not be comforted.
So we went in to rescue her because it isn't quite as smoky or noisy here and we can actually close our windows. She calmed down as soon as she got in the car - it provided good buffer. In the fifteen minutes it took us to drive home, she fell asleep. Even the rush of noise at midnight didn't make her yowl.
There needs to be a safe zone for kids like her, asthmatics, and people who suffer from PTSD. And pets. It would be a compassionate thing to do.
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