That's what I get for reading Fox News

[taste_is_sweet]

So, I am back in the fair land of Texas, and just for yucks while my sick boy is (hopefully) napping in the guest room (we were both up most of the night because of his coughing, but my FANTASTIC husband stayed home so Javier and I could go back to sleep, only Javier didn't), I decided to check out the latest news on that fucker in Belgium who stabbed two kids and a care provider to death in a daycare and wounded ten others.

And by 'kids', I mean infants. Yeah, little babies. Not that toddlers would have been better able to defend themselves, but babies is just that much more horrifying. And apparently the guy was planning on hitting more daycares. Luckily he was caught first.

I naturally can't help but mentally put my son in these situations when I read about incomprehensible crimes like this. Maybe I shouldn't say 'naturally', but I know I'm a little nuts and have come to grips with that years ago. The idea of my boy--of anyone's child--dying in terror and pain makes me sick. I don't even want to think about what the parents of the hurt or murdered babies are going through right now.

It also occurred to me that my son's daycare doesn't have any locks on the doors. I mean, ostensibly, it doesn't need to. Every teacher knows each parent by face, and they have specific procedures in place to ensure that no child leaves with anyone they're not meant to. But that, I realized when I first saw the news item on the killings on CityPulse News back in Toronto about two weeks ago, wouldn't save anyone from, say, an insane asshole with a gun or a knife. Not that I need anything else to worry about.

Since I'd already been dipping my toes into news item hell, I (foolishly, in retrospect) started perusing the other, related articles. So I read in detail about the last hours of 'Baby Grace', who was tortured to death by her parents because she wouldn't mind her manners. She was two. My son is three and he still doesn't say 'please', or 'thank-you' all the time. Jesus.

Then I read about the man in California who killed his entire family then shot himself, because he and his wife might have been unfairly fired from their jobs. Or the other family where one of the parents shot the other and them him or herself, and left their four children to fend for themselves for days, including their nine-month old daughter. Then I read about a woman in Australia who arrived late at her son's daycare to realize the eight-month old had been left on his own, screaming in the dark. And then there was the hospital who threw out the body of a deceased newborn with the trash.

Finally, just because it didn't look like things could get any worse, I read a fun article about how it's just that much more likely that the new Hadron Collider might destroy the world.

At that point it was almost like, 'bring it on'. Except I don't want my son to die at all, let alone along with the world when it gets sucked into a black hole. I hear that kind of thing hurts.

Fun times, fun times. Remind me to never read the news again. Seriously.

Comments

[alyse]

I think it is natural to imagine your own children in such situations and recoil in horror. I know that I can't bear to read such things these days, and have the same reaction as you - the idea of something happening to someone so precious and vulnerable is sickening.

It does get a little easier as they get older, probably because they're a little less helpless and therefore a little less vulnerable to some things. But it's part and parcel of being a parent, it seems.

[taste-is-sweet.livejournal.com]

Thank you. It's good to hear I'm not alone in my crazy fears. And yeah, precious and vulnerable is the perfect way of putting it.

My mom still worries about me. It never ends, does it?

[alyse]

Nope, I really don't think it does. I think it's part and parcel of that unconditional love thing :)

♥

[taste-is-sweet.livejournal.com]

Yeah, thought not.

Well, it's worth it, isn't it? Fretting and all....

[niamh-sage.livejournal.com]

You're definitely not alone in your fears! I'm the same - every sad or terrible story I read where a small child is involved is that much worse because I have my own child to imagine in the place of the one in the story. I've actually had to force myself to avoid reading such news stories because they are so distressing. The Belgium story is all the more unbearable for being close to home.

[taste-is-sweet.livejournal.com]

Oh yes, I hear you. And I was also thinking about you when I saw the news item. I really didn't think it had occurred where you live (just a guess, but it seemed to be a smaller town), but I knew it would be ten times worse for it having been in the same small country. There are certain places in the world where you might expect this kind of horror to happen, but Belgium is not one of them.

[niamh-sage.livejournal.com]

Dendermonde is not too far away in the way that nowhere in Belgium is very far away, but it's not in the same region as we live in. People are naturally horrified and sad, and there's a lot of discussion about how something like this could have happened. Apparently the young man's parents tried repeatedly to get him committed to psychiatric hospital but a judge ruled against it, saying that he was a danger to nobody. That was a couple of years ago. I can't imagine what that judge is feeling now.

All I can say is, I hope this changes the way severely mentally ill people are handled in terms of getting the treatment they need.

[taste-is-sweet.livejournal.com]

What a horrible mistake to make. I hope the judge never forgets what his assumption cost.

I hope you're right, and I hope that what happened resonates in North America as well. There's been enough damage done in Canada and the US already by severely mentally ill people who weren't able to get help.

[springwoof.livejournal.com]

oh, wow! eek! It probably doesn't help that poor Javvy is sick and you're probably feeling a little extra-stressed about his wellbeing anyway. Stay Away from the news, lady!

In better news, Javvy's scarf is almost done, and I'm told it's turnout out very nicely. And as we approach the end, we face the all-important question....fringe or no fringe? which would Javvy prefer?

[taste-is-sweet.livejournal.com]

God, yes. News is just awful. I much prefer ignorance, thank you. :) I will heed your advice as much as possible. ::sighs::

Oh, I can't wait to see the scarf, thank you! I think he'd like the texture of a fringe. I know he'll be so excited to get a package in the mail....

[springwoof.livejournal.com]

sheesh! "turning out". I *can* spell...sometimes.