I was talking with my mom the other day and I got angry. I said, “ you have no idea what it’s like to raise children in the world today.”
I continued by saying, “All I do is worry that my kids will be shot.”
I began to cry and my outrage turned to despair. As a parent in 2018, I have seen more mass shootings than anyone should have to. On days when I see another shooting in the news, I wonder why I brought children into this broken world.
The mental load that we have to carry as parents today is physically and emotionally exhausting.
This week, I woke up to another mass shooting.
The tears filled my eyes as I thought about the mothers and fathers who will never again hug their children.
I don’t care what side of the party line you fall on, we must agree that our country is broken.
Being a parent in 2018 is painful and heart-wrenching. Our worries and fears far surpass those of our parents, in terms of senseless gun violence.
On the days when I see another mass shooting in the news, I want to scoop up my children and run as far away as I can.
I am exhausted from exhaling why some man opened fire on a group of people who were simply trying to learn, trying to pray, trying to live their lives.
I want to quit. I want to throw in the towel and cry. I’m a Mom so that isn’t an option, but what are my options?
I voted.
I’ve voiced my frustration time and time again.
I’ve instructed my children on how to run from an active shooter.
What else can I do?
As a parent in 2018, I feel helpless.
I feel lost and disconnected from a country I use to love.
I feel heartbroken for the people who have been buried, years before their time, victims of gun violence. Their souls were stolen by a senseless act of gun violence that could have been prevented.
What do we do? From one mother to another I beg you, what do we do?
Being a parent of a child and his friends being in the Columbine HS Shootings in Littleton CO I can say that as a parent there is nothing that I could have done. God knows if I could have I would have!
The school knew of the ” Trenchcoat Mafia”. They were observing them. They liked to stand out by wearing black trench coats at school and to be noticed.
After school my boys would play street soccer with one of them. He lived in the next cul de sac over. He was dressed like other boys and there was never an issue when playing soccer or hanging out in the neighborhood.
However, in each of these boys rooms were arsenals of weapons and bombs. Their parents never went into their rooms. The devised different plots and plans. The first part of their plan was successful. First 3 victims were my sons best friends. The first one hit did pass immediately and Time Magazine cashed in on making a picture of his lifeless body their front cover.
Thank God the shooters did not succeed in carrying out their full plan. They had plan B, which was to take their on lives versus law enforcement.
Plan A was to get out alive, hijack a plan and fly it into a building..mind you this was before 9/11.
The aftermath of helping these traumatized young men and ladies was and is still unfathomable and heartbreaking. Some turned to suicide…others like my son…addiction.
No amount of counselors, therapist, psychologist, or psychiatrists could help those who lost friends or friends who had been wounded for life.
Next year it will 20 years since that awful day. Some of these men and women along with parents and family still are suffering with PTSD.
Ultimately their is nothing you can really do to prevent these shootings. Our society has desensitized our children from the impact of violence not just killing with weapons but in all ways.
It’s a sad to say that our children are growing up in a much scarier world than what the previous generation did.