more rotten parents…

Even before I became a parent myself, I would always notice little children walking down the street by themselves and feel really sad, even angry sometimes. I want to go up to them and ask them where their parents are. I live in SE Portland and it’s always around or near 82nd Ave. I just want to say where is your mommy? Who let you out of the house. And now that I am a mother it just gets to me even more. You see these reports on the news where a child was abducted and of course you feel sorry for the kid, the parents, the entire family. I always wonder though, where the parents were when the kid was taken. I don’t want to sound like I am blaming the parents, it is the monster who harms the kid who is the real culprit, but I just think back to all the times I saw little ones (sometimes looking only 5 or 6 years old) just wandering around all alone or maybe with another kid, and I wonder if it was one of those kids that was taken. I can’t help but think that many of these kidnapping could have been prevented with a little parental supervision. I always hear from older people that when they were kids, it wasn’t like this. They could run around their neighborhood unsupervised and not have to worry cause things like that just didn’t happen. But parents these days have to know what a sad state this world is in right now and should protect their children accordingly. When I lived in Los Angeles it seemed like every week there was a new Amber Alert. There was this one summer that kids were getting abducted so often that it was like there was a kidnapping epidemic. I didn’t have children at the time but it was still frightening to hear about. Every time I drove on the freeway there was a description or license plate # on the board. Back home in Portland now I don’t hear about it as much; but I know it still happens. All I can say is that it will never happen to my son on my watch. There are times when we have no choice but to entrust our children to others, whether it be daycare or public schools. I will do everything in my power to make sure my son is never taken from me. Until he is old enough to protect himself- He will never walk to school by himself or with only other children, he will never be left outside to play alone or without supervision, he will never be out of my sight when we are in a public place, he will never be allowed to play at the park without an adult watching him. It is sad that parents have to worry about sickos who want to hurt our children, but the truth is they are out there. I know it’s not my business to judge the way anyone else raises their kids, and I wouldn’t want anyone judging me. I just wish people would keep an eye on their kids because if they don’t someone else might.. Like this television program I saw about a year ago about a little girl, I think she was 7 or 8, she was raped and killed by a stranger who abducted her while she was going to the store to get her mother cigarettes. I felt sick when I heard that. First of all, who sells a 7 or 8 year old child cigarettes? And then, what kind of mother sends her little baby on a cigarette run? I’m sure that mother never forgave herself.

Tags: amber alert, children, kids, neglect, rants