A toddler does not understand electricity. They understand that the room suddenly looks and sounds wrong, and that is the entire problem you are solving.
The official sheet on outages - food safety, generator safety and the practical side of the lights being off for hours.
Download the PDF ↓Check the current version on Ready.gov →A U.S. government work, free of copyright. We host a copy so you can have it immediately, and link the live version too, because an emergency document that has been updated matters more than a convenient copy. We are not affiliated with, and not endorsed by, FEMA, DHS or any government agency.
You do not need to explain a power grid to a two-year-old, and trying to will not help. Name the change out loud, immediately: "The lights went off. I am right here. Let's find the flashlight." The narration is the reassurance.
A flashlight or a lamp handed to the child, even one they just hold, does more than a sentence does. Give them something to do with their hands in the first thirty seconds, before you try to talk them through anything.
Bath by flashlight instead of no bath. A story read the same as always, just by lamp. The evening staying recognisable in shape is the actual lesson a toddler takes from the whole event.
Let them hold the light and choose where it points. Being handed control of the one working thing in the room does more than being told it is fine.
Only if it genuinely feels that way to you in the moment - a forced cheerfulness a toddler can sense is worse than a calm, plain narration of what is happening.
Part of our guide to Talking to kids about emergencies.