As a mother of 3 daughters, my biggest fear is losing one of them. By losing, I mean someone kidnapping them. I can usually go about my daily business without obsessing, but every once in a while when I hear about another child abduction, I panic.
Just this past weekend, a 14 year old girl was grabbed at our local park. This is the park where my kids always play, playgroups meet, dogs are walked, baseball and soccer games held and concerts given in the summers. It’s a big park but there are always people around. But still, a girl was grabbed. Fortunately, the “grabber” heard someone coming and released the girl. But still. Scary. It could have turned out much differently.
Several years ago, my daughter’s preschool friend was kidnapped. The horror of that doesn’t ever leave me. Someone up there was watching out for him, though, because the abductor let him go when his parents yelled for him as he was being led away.
It happens. It happens right before our eyes. A child is taken in a crowded mall when the parent is two feet away. A child is taken from their front yard with other children around. It happens walking home from school. It scares the crap out of me.
I tell my girls all this. I try to put the fear in them. I don’t know if it’s working… and that scares me too. I know as parents we try so hard to protect them. All the protecting in the world doesn’t stop bad things from happening.
I wish I knew what to do. I wish I could save them all. I’m looking for answers where there aren’t any.
Carolyn,
Your fear resonates with me.
I think our job of being a parent never stops. We will forever be protecting our kids; it is our instinct.
I am sorry that something so scary happened so close to home. It makes sense that your awareness is heightened.
It is great that you are real with the girls and talk straight about what happens in the real world. It is never too early to make them aware of their surroundings and to teach them how to protect themselves.
I think this is the worst nightmare of any parent. It's been on my mind lately since Alicia Debolt went missing and was later found dead. Although, her circumstances of how she went missing were quite different. I wrote a post about it (http://parentingconfessions.blogspot.com/) that my husband thought was a little harsh toward the parents. But what I really meant to say was that because of those sickos out there we have to be VIGILANT as parents and do the best we can to keep them safe. I really hate that we have to live with this fear in the back of our minds but I don't see any other way.
I hope they catch that would-be kidnapper in your area. Or better yet, I hope a near miss scared him straight.