I was reading over at Cindy’s tonight, and came across her post on “Free Range Kids“.
I used to be the helicopter mom. I even reminisced about it last year on my old blog. Our local news team does a yearly scare the crap out of parents bit where they have a man with a bandaged arm and a picture of a puppy walk around the playground soliciting help from the children to help him find the missing dog. His goal? To get the children, while their parents watch, out of the play area and into the parking lot.
I remember seeing him and asking him what he was doing and he gave me the “shh” sign and pointed towards the news crew. I didn’t catch the crew part so proceeded to follow him and his latest “victim” out of the play area. I remember I was frantically looking around for parents and wondering how I could wrestle that child from him with my then two year old on my hip if need be.
I remember the news anchor coming up to me before they left and commending me on being so diligent and how more parents should be like me. Blah, blah blah. But oh how I walked taller for the rest of our playtime. My chin was higher, my chest poofed out. I couldn’t wait to call my husband and tell him how great a mom I was.
Thank goodness those insecure days are over. I still watch my boys when we are in public places, but I’ve relaxed quite a bit. Those same “scare the crap out of parents” news teams are the same ones that prey on alarm and sensationalism. I no longer watch the news and I no longer need to be the best mom on the playground.
~R
Filed under: The Boys
I don’t watch the news either. For one thing, our news is pretty pitiful. Many times the local stations do not get the story right. They’re more concerned with what sounds good. I always knew this, but I really found out when Jo had her riding accident and it was misreported all over the damned place. I wrote each station a lengthy email about it, too. One station apologized and earned a little of my respect back. They were the station that had made the least mistakes, too. If I do watch news, I watch that station, and I have noticed that they do seem to care more about getting facts right than sensationalism.
Another reason I don’t watch the news is because I could tie myself up in knots worrying about all the things they show on there. We had friends who were constantly watching 20/20 and all those shows in addition to local news and they were afraid to let their kids do anything at all with them more than a foot behind. On Scout camping trips, they wouldn’t let their kids sleep in the boys’ or girls’ tents because they’d watched some stupid 20/20 where a Boy Scout had been pulled out of his group tent and murdered on a camping trip while the other boys in his tent slept all around him. If I start thinking like that, I’ll have to think about all the more normal things that could happen. We’d have to stop going anywhere in cars because I’m sure more kids die in car accidents each year than are ever pulled out of tents on Scouting trips and murdered by maniacs. Shoot, I should just put my kids in a bubble and refuse to let them live any kind of normal life.
Good for you for saying “no” to that kind of madness.
Hey, I’m not so sure I’ve been to this blog before. Now I know where you might be.
Once when we were on vacation in a city 12 hours away in our own country, when our kids were 2, 4 , 6 and 8; we were sitting with friends on a blanket at a park while the kids played. The older three were in the spray park and Z was 2 and was crouched between two pieces of play equipment playing with the rocks. She was there for about half an hour doing the same thing and then she was gone. There she was holding a young lady’s hand walking a little ways from us with another young lady (or maybe a 15 year old). Sirdar went up to her and asked what she thought she was doing with our daughter, and she said she worked at the park and had seen her there for a long time and hadn’t seen anyone pay attention to her and thought she was lost so was taking her to such and such to try to locate her parents. Hmmmm…..she was really cute and fairly well dressed; not likely a parent would leave her there. Besides, she wasn’t crying and did they ask her where her parents were? Perhaps they thought they would be heros or something. It ended up okay, but it can happen pretty quick with parents not being vigilant. When the kids get older, there are just other things to worry about. But even with J driving now, there is no use worrying. We have equipped her with a good head on her shoulder and we just have to deal with life as it happens and hope for the best.
Unfortunately I lost my daughter once at the local science museam. It was a busy day and we were used to going there when it dead quiet during the week. My daughter was dawdling behind when I thought she was right beside me. The museum had such a tight system that when I noticed she was gone (within literally 3 – 4 minutes) she was already whisked away by security. I went into supreme panic mode and felt such weak kneed relief when I found her at the front desk.
There’s really no moral to my story.
I am a viligint parent. My children always with me. That day, I guess, I slipped. I’m certainly not a perfect parent. And it could have easily been a predator that day that took advantage of my slip-up and not museum security. I also know some parents who find me too paranoid.
By the way, I didn’t know you were posting over here! Which is why I haven’t been by.