in today’s daily news are two (remarkably unlinked) stories about the tragic deaths of children, ariella weiss and “smiley” diaz.
ariella was three years old. she died in a fire started by a burning candle in her bedroom.
smiley was 11 months old. she died in the bathtub while her mother cooked dinner, having left her in the care of a 2-year old (also in the tub).
no one asked ariella’s grief-stricken mother what she was thinking when she lit that candle; no one asked giovanna diaz what she was thinking when she left a toddler in charge of an infant in a tub.
but i would like to know what — or whether — they were thinking. i don’t have kids, but even as a preteen i knew enough not to light candles in my kid brother’s room. and as for leaving a 2-year-old and a less than one-year-old unsupervised in a bathtub, well, i wouldn’t even step off to pick up the telephone, much less go and cook a meal.
there’s no license to parent, and god forbid there should be one in our already over-regulated world. but then i read the paper, and i wonder.
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And to think you need a license to drive; for that matter, a license to fish is also required.
Happy Independence Day! Glad to see you back.
Many people are wondering the same thing. What WERE they thinking? Perhaps schools should evaluate students’ common sense before sending them out into the world.
Dear god, this is terrible. Didn’t we have courses on how to handle children for couples having their first, second child? Aren’t these the places where the truly incompetent would be rooted out and counselling, etc given?
I don’t know, I don’t live in the states, but I could almost agree now a certain method of gatekeeping ought to be introduced.
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