Would love to be able to leave town, but not possible in our circumstances. We also have a child with 'flu so not fun.

Overall though, I think my children are coping better than I am. My four year old just carries on playing with her blocks during the milder aftershocks, and the toddler slept through the big ones. My nerves are the ones that are frayed.

Most families seem to ahve at least one child who is more severely tramatized. My 12 year old is crying alot still sleeping with us too afraid to go back alone to her own room. She also has seperation anxiety whenever I go out. My 16 year old is better but is sleeping with all the lights on and thats something for a 16 year old boy! we are making sure we talk a lot about how everyone is scared and its normal to be jitterary with the aftershocks and to reassure that life will return to normal, with us feeling normal again (and soon we hope).

Having kids is what makes it bad for me, having them all in our room so they are within arms reach makes me feel a little btter. Even when our littlest slept through the big aftershocks i was running in to get her and brought her back to our bed. i feel extremely blessed to have the means offered to me to bring them out of town even if just for a few nights. at least we can get some sleep which hopefully means better abilty to cope when we get back. i struggle most with the sheer terror they have when they hear the aftershocks rolling in.the looks on their faces breaks my heart. i have also had a comment from a family member overseas "no one died its no big deal" yeah right every single person that went through this will live with this for the rest of their lives. that moment was the most scared i have ever felt in my entire life.

i've been sleeping on my parents floor since the quake hit, just feel more safety in numbers. mum is a primary school teacher and is really happy the schools remain closed this week with the aftershocks as i'm sure the kids have frayed nerves, let alone the teachers. i've had about 8 hours sleep since the quake just due to aftershocks.

one thing mum was really pleased about was that after studying disasters last term with her 5 year olds and the other kids in the school, many of their parents reported that their children were telling them what to do during the quake - get under the door, don't move until the shaking stops, don't light any candles etc. the teachers were stoked that the kids remembered and were able to use what they had learned in such a frightening situation.

Fear for my children far outweighs fear for myself or anything we own. Outwardly I'm calm-ish and trying not express or show my fear because I know it will infect the kids, who are actually coping well.

They are tired, but even when awake they barely notice the aftershocks. In fact, I think the 12 year old finds them exciting (all three are boys) and wants to do an 'experiment' when the next one happens to see how it feels when he's lying on the floor instead of standing.

There may be more going on in their heads than we realise though. When we moved them into the floor of our room to sleep at night, the 9 year old said he was glad because he was on the top bunk and if it fell over he'd be "severely injured".

@ Flub #5 - agreed, there may be more going on for them than we realise. My elder child has been turning to me to get an idea of how scared we should be. I've been a model of zen-like calm - on the outside - and thought it was working to make things easier for them. I do think it is, but, I saw the look on their little faces as we passed a huge pile of rubble that once was a building we passed by daily on the way to school.

It's hard, but, children are resilient. I guess we can be strong for them and let them know how we're keeping them safe.

@Karryn # 3 - agreed; we'll live with it for the rest of our lives. We had quite the opposite experience re concern from overseas. People we'd not heard from for years were phoning from overseas; one offered to fly in, yes, to the quake zone, to help. They all thought we were lying under a pile of rubble somewhere. We're not. Thankfully. But even though we're safe, ChCh is our home and life here has changed forever....

Sigh.

My Daughter is only 3 months old, and it is her helplessness that has me in a panic every time I hear a rumble (and half the time it turns out to be just a truck driving past!) When the initial shake hit I lept out of bed and immediately charged through the house to her bedroom (she had only been moved into their about a week earlier). I fell and hit the floor pretty hard, and narrowly missed having a bookcase fall on me, but all I could think of was getting to her room to make her safe. Now I am nervous every time I place her on her playmat as I want to be able to snatch her up in an instant if another one hits. I am just thankful that she is so young that she doesn't seem to notice the shaking at all.

For those in Christchurch who experienced THE quake and the countless aftershocks we shared a similar 'experience' but the implications and impacts vary. Our street suffered massive liquifaction, cracks in driveways and structural damage to house foundations etc (along one side of the street, while the other side was visually untouched.) But like most people we're all freaked.

Thankfully my 2 year old seems completely unbothered, continues to sleep through and only gets upset when we drag him under the table now and then. My 4 year old goes through moments of being inquisitive, anxious and completely content.