Sad Circumstances

Tonight I am very sad. You see, I went to K-Mart to pick up a couple of things (cereal, guinea pig bedding, and some treats for my students to morivate them to study for the ever-looming SOL tests). My friend and co-worker Reen called me and asked if she could come over and pick up her computer (which I was hanging onto for her---long story). I happened to have the computer in my car and she happened to be driving past K-Mart, so she met me there. After our computer exchange, I took off on my way home, slightly annoyed by the slow service at K-Mart, when Reen called me back in a panic, asking me to come back to the K-Mart parking lot. When I got there she explained that in the car next to her were two adults, a two-year-old, and an infant. The adults got out of the car with the infant and went into K-Mart, leaving the two-year-old in the car, sleeping---but not for long. After the parents left the car, the child woke up and started crying (and rightly so). Not only did these adults leave the child in the car alone in a parking lot, they left the front passenger side window wide open. Anyone could have reached in the car and unlocked it to grab the kid....but the doors weren't locked either. So, after sitting in Reen's car for a couple of minutes we decided to call the police. The police came, got the kid somewhat settled down, and paged the parents, all while Reen and I sat in the car a few spaces away (we moved so the adults didn't know who called the po-po). Anyway, in the end, the mother of the two-year-old and infant was arrested (oh, and there were NO carseats in the car either--which means mom may face felony charges), the male with her (no relation to the kids) gets away clean, and the two kids are being placed with Child Protective Services. Now, I know this was the right thing to do, as this is a case of neglect and the child was in danger. However, this is not the first time I have had to be involved with watching children go with CPS or calling CPS to report a parent. Each time I have something to do with a child being taken away from parents, it's so very hard. I have been very sad tonight. It is hard because I don't want those poor children being with a parent who is not going to take care of them, but at the same time, away from parents, those kids (especially the two-year-old) are going to have some other issues to deal with later on in life. There is really no good situation.

SO, all this to say......

Just because you CAN have kids, doesn't mean you SHOULD have kids. I think there are some people who should have to apply to become parents. Some people should have their tubes tied before they can do something stupid. I hate stupid people!

That's all I have to say about that.