Resilience and resourcefulness are qualities we want our children to possess. I learned a lot from reading one educator's efforts to help young people develop good character in a recent New York Times story about Dominic Randolph, Riverdale Country Day School's headmaster. 

Grit, he believes, is necessary for youngsters to succeed, possibly more so than academic achievement. It can be challenging, for parents though, to create these opportunities when we are fortunate enough to live in beautiful and affluent Westchester County.

However, there's nothing like a fluke snow storm and prolonged power outage before the last leaf falls to test our character. And while I tried to behave with resilience and resourcefulness I wasn't happy about it.

In my last column I ranted about Halloween. So one might think that I got what I deserved when Halloween was all but cancelled in Northern Westchester due to storm damage.

Despite my distaste for the holiday, I acted quickly to save trick-or-treating for the children of my neighborhood. Admittedly, part of my motivation was to avoid the hysterics that would ensue if the kids could not celebrate. No grit there.

 So I called down south to my father who lives in lower Westchester and asked if the kids could trick or treat in his neighborhood. Then I ordered up some pizzas and we caravanned down I-684. I am the mom who saved Halloween.

Of course, that was early in the week, when I was naive enough to think that my electricity would be restored any minute. When I had to scramble for childcare yet another day, and listen to my daughter complain about coming to work with me, I felt slightly less resilient.

I quickly pointed out that work was warm and had a computer, two things that home was presently devoid of, and if she stopped complaining I would take her shopping for a winter coat that afternoon, which apparently she would be needing both in and out of the house for the foreseeable future.

Of course its hard to take winter coat shopping seriously when the outside temperature reaches 60 degrees, but I was reminded of its importance when I stepped into my home that afternoon and the thermometer was a balmy 48 degrees Farenheit.

But that night I lay awake later that night at my in-laws, uncomfortable in a bed that wasn't my own, wondering which one of my too many roommates—daughter, husband or dog—was snoring. I tried to calculate how much earlier I needed to rise in order to get to work on time, since I was further away.

Yet I was one of the lucky ones with a warm, free place to stay, so it was resilience that got me out of bed before dawn. My resilience kicked in again when I picked up my son from school and his teacher reported he had used an inappropriate word (no doubt directed at NYSEG's inability to get our power on) when he should have been writing.

I was ready to go for the jugular and take away all electronics for a year should we ever be blessed with the ability to use them again. His teacher assured me that this tactic was unnecessary; the hour he spent sobbing in class properly showed remorse.

I was able to regroup, speak calmly to my boy and have him issue an old fashioned apology note to his teachers. A character building opportunity for both of us!

But as I searched for yet another change of clothes in the dark and realized the next  morning my chosen outfit would be a huge fashion faux pas, resilience and resourcefulness dissipated. My skin began to itch non stop, no doubt a stress response to the week's events.

My agitation with husband who was incredibly agitated with children for being, well, children, had reached a pinnacle. In a last desperate attempt of his own resourcefulness, he whisked them off to a movie (the in-laws cut cable for their winter trip to Florida, so we were warm but without Nick Junior) instead of chasing them around his parents house yelling at them to pick up after themselves.

His resilience was trumped only by the resourcefulness of my friend who in an effort to keep the kids out of her cold, dark house took her six- and three-year- old for manicures after dark. Her daughter was thrilled, and her three-year-old son has the cleanest hands in town. I found this particularly brilliant since with well water her lack of power meant there was no way to bathe the kids. It was cheaper than a hotel.

The kids did not complain often during our week long Diaspora. Perhaps it was the sugar from their Halloween stash that kept their mood elevated, or maybe they are more resilient then I give them credit for. I still feel annoyed at my own inability to keep my mood in check; as I recognize even with the inconveniences of this last week, we are still fortunate.

For now, while my house is warm and my belongings are all in one place I will try to contemplate how to approach the next weather catastrophe with a better attitude.

Or, I could take the advice of my four-year-old said yesterday, "Mom can we get a generator?"

Now I just need the resourcefulness to come up with the money.

About this column: Each week, mom and educator Laurie Lichtenstein shares her (often wry) observations on parenting three kids in Westchester.