The struggle is real for parents as city, schools shut down after blizzard

Deanne Burton Snow knew her daughters were getting desperate when they traded the iPad for books.

"You can only watch iPads for so long because I fight with them to read books and today I found them reading books. So how about that?" Snow said.

• 'We're getting there': St. John's making headway in post-storm recovery

Little sister Paige dressed for the weather in her Frozen-inspired Elsa dress, and unicorn headband, as she and older sister Grace played hide and seek.

Paige turned five on Friday, the day of the record-setting blizzard, and her party didn't go ahead as planned.

But the food didn't go to waste.

They can sense your fear. They know. They will follow you around like the Pied Piper if you make eye contact- Gillian Pearson

"So last night we had all the neighbours over for the burgers that we were supposed to eat with my family on Friday night," said Snow.

At Maria Maloney Day's house, she tries to keep eye contact to a minimum, she laughed.

At least, she said, her five-year-old daughter has stopped asking to leave the house, as St. John's enters Day 6 of the state of emergency.

And there's been a lot of watching Frozen. A lot.

In Mount Pearl, Gillian Pearson is keeping her four-year-old and 16-month-old busy with more screen time than usual and snow playtime.

"They can sense your fear. They know. They will follow you around like the Pied Piper if you make eye contact," Pearson said.

They have also made an unnaturally large number of paper airplanes.

The moms have now accepted that their homes will be trashed and the TV will need to stay on.

"Aside from rationing milk, fruit snacks and our sanity, it's been trying. It's been lonely."

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