Letting Go in a Dangerous World

Hello everyone, I hope all is well with you. It has been a busy week with work and writing. I’m still noodling about my story. I have to decide which way I want to go before I put all the pieces together, but I’m getting there. Winter has finally left us. My tulips have finally started to bloom. It’s good to get outside and feel the warm air, but enough about that.

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 Today, I’d like to talk about letting go. Something I wasn’t prepared to do. I don’t know if any parent is prepared for this, but right before my eyes my boys have grown up. They don’t need me to tie their shoes or kiss their wounds any longer. It’s hard to let go.

I wasn’t ready for this. My oldest is going to college soon and I worry. What if a mass shooter comes to his school and shoots it up? What if someone tries to blackmail him on social media? What if someone slips some drugs into his drink when he isn’t looking? The world is such a dangerous place right now.

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How can I make my boys understand the danger? How do I teach them to protect themselves? How do I teach them to be vigilant and look for danger before it finds them?

These are the questions I ask myself. Because when I raised them, I focused on teaching them how to be a good person and a good friend. I taught them to follow the rules, but now the world is full of people who don’t follow the rules. How do I protect them from those people?

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There was a school shooting in Oxford Michigan a year and a half ago, and the parents have been arrested and charged as well because they knew of their son’s fragile mental condition and did nothing. They bought the gun for him. How do I protect my kids from these people?

My first thought is to teach them to defend themselves. But how can they defend themselves from a mass shooter? Do I give them both a gun?

Does anyone else see where this is going? If we don’t do something soon this problem is going to get worse. We need to look at countries that don’t have a mass shooter problem and emulate them until we come up with something better. We need to nip this in the bud.

I say we look at Canada and emulate their gun control laws then maybe I wouldn’t be so afraid to let go. Maybe I could enjoy watching my boys bloom.

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Protecting them from the real threats on social media is a little easier. They still listen to me (Thank God) and right now, they’re not active on the popular sites, but it’s only a matter of time. I feel less worried about this one because my kids’ school has been very good at communicating the dangers of social media to their students. Hopefully, these lessons will stick.

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These are some solutions to some very dangerous problems. How about you? Do you have any ideas on how to protect our kids from the threats that are out there? Leave a comment! I’d love to hear from you!

Another School Shooting…when will they stop?

Hello everyone, I hope all is well with you. I’m back today after a week of work and editing. I’m editing my second manuscript and I’m excited about this one too. But enough about that. We had a sad event happen this week. There was another school shooting in Texas.

This breaks my heart. I think about those innocent children cowering in corners and how scared they must’ve been. My heart goes out to them. Then I think of the shooter and wonder how wounded he must’ve been to go to that extreme. He must’ve felt he had nothing left to live for.

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I think of my own kids and wonder how I can protect them. I wonder if online school isn’t the solution, but also an exasperation of the problem at the same time. I mean keeping large groups from getting together will make them less likely to be victims, but and this is a big but, isolation and disconnection are huge factors that drive these kids to do the unthinkable.

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I was chatting with my husband, and he asked the mind-boggling question, where did this eighteen-year-old get the money to buy an assault weapon? These guns are not cheap. I read a little bit of background about the shooter. He was a loner who had quit his job a week prior to the shooting.

This supports my theory that disconnection is a major factor in these events. Disconnection from family, their community, and society. We all need to be vigilant. As parents we can do our part and make sure our kids feel connected to their family. Family traditions are a big part of that.

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According to another newspaper article, the shooter made threats to girls online when they rebuffed his sexual advances and claimed he’d come to their school and shoot it up. These are signs that we need to take seriously. No one believed he would carry out his threats. They all thought he was kidding.

Now we know better. Now we must do better.

We need to take better care of our kids. Pure and simple. The teen years are the hardest years of our lives, and they’re harder now than when we were teens decades ago. When they withdraw, make sure they’re not dealing with anxiety or depression. I know this is hard. They won’t like your intrusion, but they’ll appreciate it when they’re older. And the fact that they made it to “older” will be a blessing in itself.

We need stronger gun laws for young kids. I am a believer in the second amendment, but I’m also a believer in keeping our kids alive. Both can be true. Young kids don’t need assault rifles. Period.

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We need to train our police officers how to manage situations like this. It’s my understanding that they stood around the school for an hour, not knowing what to do. It was a border patrol officer who got into the school and shot the shooter.

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We need to do more for through our mental health programs. Mental health issues start in the teen years. If your teen or a friend of your teen’s is showing mental health issues, try and get them help in any way you can.

Is there a way to prevent mass shootings? I believe we can. Maybe not prevent every one, but we can bring these numbers down. How about you? Do you have any ideas? Leave a comment. I’d love to hear from you.

Reflections on my One Little Word: A Slice of Life Post

 

 

Hello everyone! I hope all is well with you. I’m back today with another Slice of Life Post. Today, I thought I’d reflect on how I’m doing with my One Little Word.

I chose LISTEN back in January, and my goal was to listen to understand instead of listening to reply. I feel I’ve improved listening to my kids, and our relationship is stronger than ever.

I’ve also done a lot of listening to what’s going on in the world today. It seems like there’s a lot of anger and hate out there. I went on a field trip for my youngest and spoke with some of the other mothers. We talked about road rage and how you just don’t know what’s going to happen if you accidentally cut someone off. They could pull a gun on you.

A week later, we have a Mass Shooting in Florida. I don’t know if Americans realize this, but we could lose our freedom because of all of this violence. We’re going to have a police state if we don’t somehow turn this hate trend around.

I can just see it. There’ll be metal detectors at every mall and food establishment. Won’t that be fun? Standing in line before you even get in the store. You think grocery shopping’s a pain now, just wait until those metal detectors slow things down.  Of course, there’ll be more jobs in the security field, so we’ve got that going for us.

How do we turn this trend around? That’s a good question. America needs to LISTEN. The whole country needs to LISTEN to understand. The whole country needs to LISTEN with a compassionate ear.

 

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We are all unique individuals. We are all human beings. We need to let go of the fear that drives the hate. We as individuals need to educate ourselves and the fastest way to do this is to LISTEN to people who are different than us.

I’m sending prayers out to the victims of the Orlando shooting. I hope their families and loved ones can heal.

I also hope America is LISTENING. LISTENING TO UNDERSTAND.

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