that was us

Last week, there was a twenty-one month old child found wandering in a highway in our area. Luckily, the child was rescued by a man driving by. The child was taken into protective custody by authorities. The parents' names' and video of their home were shown on the 5:00, 6:00, and 10:00 local news. Tacked onto the end of the report, the station noted that DHS had no prior complaints on the parents.

I do not know these people. They may be the worst parents ever. They might be the best parents ever. Or they could be just average parents trying to survive. Seven years ago, that news report would have been about me. It was a very mild November morning. Kyler was sick. That was back in the day when you gave kids cold medicine. The cold medicine made Kyler hyper--very, very hyper. We were both running on very little sleep by this point. This dose, however, had finally helped him crash, and we were getting some much needed sleep. I had brought him into my king-size bed, because he was so sick.

At around 5:00 am or so, my doorbell rang. I've never opened the door to bad news before, but I just knew this was bad news. It was my neighbor. She was getting her paper. She asked if that was my son walking down the street. Looking past her, I saw Kyler in his diaper, shirt, and boots and carrying his jack o'lantern bucket. I can only assume he was "trick-or-treating" in the middle of the road on our small cul de sac. I ran and grabbed him up, torn between wanting to grab him and hug him and wanting to grab him and scold him. In the end, I did both. (The front door had been locked, but it was the kind of lock that you could still open from the inside. It was replaced that same day.)

It wouldn't have taken much to make a very different ending to our story. Had the weather been colder that morning...Had my neighbor not been up that morning...Had the paper come later...Had Kyler gotten up earlier and been out longer...Had we lived in a busier neighborhood...things could have been much worse. The next time you hear a report of something happening (or almost happening) to a child, please take a moment and realize just how easily things can happen...Please avoid the rush to judge. Please consider just how easily things can happen or that we all make mistakes.

I do not consider myself to be a bad mom (most of the time). I don't consider myself to be a great mom. I am an average mom just trying to raise good kids in a scary world, and I almost lost everything one mild November morning.