I'm feeling rather hurt because I realize now that some of you may have gotten the wrong impression of me from my post this morning. Please believe that I am not a person who will normally just stand aside and watch things happen without doing anything. Under normal circumstances I would be the first one to jump in and do something. But, you must understand that I am a minority in a very tightly knit religious community of which I am one of the 'outsiders'. Even just saying hello to these women brings looks of scorn so knocking on their door 'reminding them' per se to watch their children would probably have me run right out of the neighborhood. Well, maybe not so drastic, but nevertheless, it would draw a lot of ire to be sure.
Believe me when I say it breaks my heart to see these things going on around me and being unable to do anything about it. You really have to be in the situation to understand it...and by now, I may be making matters worse here, but I don't want anyone having the wrong impression of who I am as a human being. Hopefully you will all understand. I treasure each and ever one of you.
Hi! I stopped in today from Miss *R*'s blog.
ReplyDeleteYour posts resonated with me. It is impossible to save all the children though we wish we could. Being an outsider myself I think you must be a kind and wise human being.
I didn't take anyone's comment as implying you should have done anything (like chew out parents or call police). You were just observing that some people are pretty nonchalant, given recent tragic news stories.
ReplyDeleteOH Mary, of course you can't "say something" to the dumb mothers! Any more than I could "say something" to the dumb mother, whom I observed the other evening!
ReplyDeleteYou, in your situation, even less than I could have. I may never see this woman again. But you LIVE there! And you take enough crap from your neighbors, already. Of course you couldn't go up on the porch and knock on the door, and say something.
I just sent a comment, saying of course you could NOT go up and say something to the dumb mother! Of course not!
ReplyDeletewonder if it sent... so i say it again.
Your post didn't leave me feeling anything other than a great feeling of sadness at how some parents don't stop for a second to think. I know I was not the best parent by any means, but even 20 years ago when my kids were little, I never left them alone like that. Heck, I didn't even let them walk to school by themselves and school was right across the street from my house!
ReplyDeleteWe were at the County Fair this morning...a mother and tiny little girl were walking along...the baby was obviously so tired and hot that she was past all thought...however, Mom was getting frustrated asking what's the matter...little girl doesn't know what's the matter...she's just crying... I tried to tell Mom this, but she wasn't listening...poor mom and baby...
ReplyDelete