Once you become a parent, it’s like every time you pick up the newspaper or turn on the TV-or in my case read the teleprompter-there are always tragic stories involving children. And it makes you sick. I cannot get recent headlines out of my head… Toddler squeezed to death by python, Baby dies from 100 small animal bites… and I won’t even detail horrific stories of child abuse that come to mind. I know it’s reality and you can’t ignore it, but since becoming a mom I definitely don’t invite it. A movie about a girl with cancer whose parents have another child to save her, I’ll pass. Any horror movie from Children of the Corn to that new flick called Orphan coming out this weekend. It involves a family adopting a possessed child… no thanks! I don’t need Hollywood to make up something terrible when real stuff happens every day. It’s tough enough to read stories like this privately, even worse when you’re sharing them on-camera during a newscast. My heart breaks every week for another family.
Kay & Jayda, Ashley & Millie from Charles City
Posted under Baby Thomas: Month 12
This post was written by Tara on July 21, 2009
Hi Tara,
I often wonder what you are thinking when you are reporting on a story about something bad that involves a child. Every now and then I’ll see the flicker of a sad look on your face, but, you are very professional, and you do the report in a very matter of fact manner. But I know that deep down, you’re thinking about Charlotte and Thomas. I agree about not going to see horror movies, I hate them!! I did see “My Sister’s Keeper”, but only because I read the book. The movie was a HUGE letdown, by the way. Anyway, keep up the great reporting. You do a wonderful job!! Deb
I totally agree, Tara. No matter what we do, no matter how closely we protect our children, no matter how we try at our jobs, no matter how diligently we pay our bills, no matter what, something WILL happen. All we can do is relish every single moment. Every single giggle of our child. Every single hug and kiss from our spouse. Every single “horray” from our boss, every single medical treatment that gives us hope. Hope, joy in the life we are given, and the celebration of what we have is what it is all about. There is really nothing more.
This post brings back a memory from a few years ago. I had just returned to work at a local hospital after maternity leave from my first child. Just a normal day and then, over the intercom, I heard, “pediatric code blue, ICU room 3, 10 minutes”. The code was repeated and my heart sank into the pit of my stomach. My mind started racing, “where is my daughter? could that be her?” Of course, she was safe and sound at daycare, but at that moment, my heart broke for the parents of that child!
To this day I thank God several times a day for my healthy, happy family and what a miracle having children and being a parent is!
Tara-
You are stronger than I am. I would breakdown telling the news. As for the movies and stories I am the same way. You hear enough in real life we don’t need to imagine it otherwise. I squeeze my 3 girls extra tight every time another scary news story is told.
I remember shortly after having my first child, I was driving somewhere in Waterloo and an accident was being cleaned up, and out in the street by the vehilce was a car seat. Just sitting there empty, I don’t know what happened, and maybe there wasn’t even a child in the car and everything was fine. But it really affected me and I started crying. I had to pull over and just turn around and look at my baby and thank god that she was just sitting there and that wasn’t me in the accident. I thank god everyday that my family is healthy. I pray that nothing bad happens to them or me. Real life is hard sometimes and it’s too bad the news can’t be just about all good things. Because there is good out there. The bad just makes me apprectiate the good even more.
I agree with you on the new movie coming out this weekend. It looks absolutely disgusting. I don’t know how a parent of a child that is an actor put them in that kind of movie. My granddaughters went to the movie UP, and I had to go and pick up my youngest because she got scared.
Love reading your column, keep up the good work.
My mother is a social worker in San Bernardino, CA, and I’ve told her I cannot hear the stories she tells. The staggering amount of child neglect and abuse that goes on every day is too much for me to handle. I think of my little guy and it’s just not something I can face.
Kernel–I know what you mean. I work for the county medical examiner and I get to witness first hand some of the neglect and abuse that some parents inflict to the point of death. It’s appalling and I love that I can come to Tara’s blog and see happy pictures of happy kids and hear funny stories that show we are truly enjoying the family and life itself. It keeps me grounded.
What about the ones who let the rats eat the babies toes. Some people should not have children