The last few days I've had a mixture of happy and sad. Happy because we got back from a great trip, and sad, well I'll explain why.
•I got a message that my one of bosses when I first started working here died of cancer. He made it not a very easy place to step into work at. He and the owner saw different things. It turned out that he was making things up about the owner to the teachers. He always got my name wrong to. When you work in a small company you just need to know everyone's name in my book. Part of me felt guilty for not feeling sad that he had passed. He was a great Dad and husband. He just wasn't so easy to work under.
•Then I saw that one of my students had a best friend that passed away. I don't even know her friend. Here I felt more sadness to this stranger, than I did of an old co-worker. I do know that my student has been friends with her since 2nd grade and she was young, 19 years old. I saw pictures of her. She was happy in every photo. She was planning on getting married. I found out that her Dad had what they thought was an unloaded gun. Somehow she got shot. As crazy as it sounds, it was an accident. This girl was her Dad's everything! I just couldn't imagine how that whole family feels!
•The boy's Great Aunt and Uncle live close to a fire that's going on in Arizona. Scary! There is hardly any rain there to control a fire!
•Today I read an awful story about someone living in Council Bluffs, which isn't far from here. Three people in a home abused their disabled son! They would put silverware on the stove and burn his bare skin with it! They would make him sleep in the garage with dog chains. After reading that I seriously felt sick to my stomach!
•Then I read this blog post and cried. It's about a mom who has tweens. She dislikes that instead of experiencing firsts, she experiences lasts now. My older sister is going though some of the same things she was talking about with my oldest nephew. Being a teacher of older kids/young adults I know it will happen where I too will not be the center of my kids' world someday. I'll get sassed at; their friends will be their everything. I don't know why, it isn't even my world right now, but I cried.
I need to stop reading the news.
Showing posts with label tragedy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label tragedy. Show all posts
Wednesday, June 19, 2013
Wednesday, April 17, 2013
Tragedy
I was checking out fun editorials to give my students for their last illustration assignment. I found a ton of stuff that happened this year that was outlandish, interesting, or fun. They are perfect for college student illustrations: A boy expelled from school for having a mohawk, a real petting zoo, we're talking lions, tigers and bears, a feather growing from a babies face and more. I have a total of 15 articles. I was trying to contain myself from laughing at some of the crazy editorials. In my search I came across the current news. The bombing of Boston. My oldest sister runs marathons, so immediately horrible pictures came to my mind.
I went home from work and Daddy asked why I looked like I just saw a ghost? I asked if he had seen the news? He hadn't, but heard something on the radio. At this point we didn't know how bad it was. I just knew 2 people were killed and 40 were injured.
We decided to go out to dinner at Sam and Louie's Pizza. The meat I had pulled for dinner was still frozen. In my wallet I had 2 free meal passes for the boys.
At the pizza place there were two TVs broadcasting the horror. Daddy looked at me, I looked at him, and then I asked the waitress if she would kindly switch the station.
She did, but she stood there for awhile trying to find something new to put on. I said, "Really you can put on anything. I just don't want my sons seeing the horrible tragedy." She said, "I understand. It's just that I have to have sports or news stations on. On both of those types of stations they are covering what happened." She finally found something. In the mean time, Mica had seen a bomb go off. He laughed thinking it was fake.
It's not like I strive to hide things from my children. It's just that when something is too much for even me to understand, I don't want my children watching it.
Daddy and I hadn't even had a chance to talk about what had happened yet.
With the Sandy Hook tragedy we decided to talk to Mica. We kept it brief, asked where they go in their school for danger drills and asked if he had questions. He didn't ask anything. Then we told him if he did have questions to ask us. We mentioned not to talk about it at school because not all of his friend's parents would choose to talk to their kids. We chose to never talk to Isaak.
Isaak has been freaked out about death, rightly so. I just don't want him terrified about the topic even more.
My thoughts go out to everyone personally effected by the bombing that happened in Boston.
Do you, or did you talk to your children about tragedies?
I went home from work and Daddy asked why I looked like I just saw a ghost? I asked if he had seen the news? He hadn't, but heard something on the radio. At this point we didn't know how bad it was. I just knew 2 people were killed and 40 were injured.
We decided to go out to dinner at Sam and Louie's Pizza. The meat I had pulled for dinner was still frozen. In my wallet I had 2 free meal passes for the boys.
At the pizza place there were two TVs broadcasting the horror. Daddy looked at me, I looked at him, and then I asked the waitress if she would kindly switch the station.
She did, but she stood there for awhile trying to find something new to put on. I said, "Really you can put on anything. I just don't want my sons seeing the horrible tragedy." She said, "I understand. It's just that I have to have sports or news stations on. On both of those types of stations they are covering what happened." She finally found something. In the mean time, Mica had seen a bomb go off. He laughed thinking it was fake.
It's not like I strive to hide things from my children. It's just that when something is too much for even me to understand, I don't want my children watching it.
Daddy and I hadn't even had a chance to talk about what had happened yet.
With the Sandy Hook tragedy we decided to talk to Mica. We kept it brief, asked where they go in their school for danger drills and asked if he had questions. He didn't ask anything. Then we told him if he did have questions to ask us. We mentioned not to talk about it at school because not all of his friend's parents would choose to talk to their kids. We chose to never talk to Isaak.
Isaak has been freaked out about death, rightly so. I just don't want him terrified about the topic even more.
My thoughts go out to everyone personally effected by the bombing that happened in Boston.
Do you, or did you talk to your children about tragedies?
Monday, July 23, 2012
Tragedy Strikes
This weekend was an interesting one indeed.
My mom (Grandma Spiehs) had surgery on her toes. She's doing good. On Saturday I took them Chicken and Dumplings, green beans and fruit. On Sunday my older sister (Aunt Angela) took them a meal. She's hobbling around in a boot. Wires hang out of her toes. I didn't get to see them. I only saw them in the x-ray. The wires will get removed. One pin stays.
My younger sister (Aunt Terra) took her family to a Trisomy 18 conference. She had the chance to meet other families with kids that suffer from Trisomy 13 and 18. She said it was sad, informative, fun to see families from all over. One family came from Sweden, one from Canada and a lot from the US. She talked a lot with a lady that is also an RN and has a daughter the same age as Emerson.
I was in the lobby at a Honda shop waiting for our Pilot's recall to be fixed on Friday morning. I was hoping they would get done while we went out to breakfast; no such luck. The low beam lights could go out at any time. All the sudden I hear on the TV about the shooting in Aura, Colorado. I knew that because they were talking about Batman Mica's ears would perk up. I put them on the empty computer to play on the the PBS website. I have no problem talking to the boys about tragedy. If at all possible I'd like to wait until they are in upper elementary to explain that stuff to them. How do you feel about that? Any advice? I think if something happens here or within our family it's unavoidable; I have to talk to them. It's important to communicate as a family. I just don't want to push that violence is a reality to them so soon.
At home on Saturday morning I got a call from the local police department. A 10 year old boy was missing that lived a few blocks away. It was just a recording describing this kid and what he was wearing. It was just telling us this information because they wanted everyone in the area to look out for him. I listened, hung up the phone, got the food in the car to take it to my parents, made sure Isaak was buckled up and started crying. Mica said, "What's wrong Mommy?" I broke my rule of not talking to them about tragedy's to illustrate a point. I said, "Well Mica that phone call was the police department. A little boy that's only 10 years old is missing. You know how I tell you not to run ahead in stores and at the park?" He said, "Yes." I said, "Well this is the reason why. This little boy is missing. I don't know if he ran away, or was kidnapped. What I do know is I thought about you and how you run ahead. Someone could just take you. I could never see you again. Do you understand what I'm saying?" He said, "Yes." I never did hear if they found him, or not. I don't see anything about this 10 year old on the internet. I can only imagine that he was in fact found. It's such a good thing that a call went out to everyone in the area!
My mom (Grandma Spiehs) had surgery on her toes. She's doing good. On Saturday I took them Chicken and Dumplings, green beans and fruit. On Sunday my older sister (Aunt Angela) took them a meal. She's hobbling around in a boot. Wires hang out of her toes. I didn't get to see them. I only saw them in the x-ray. The wires will get removed. One pin stays.
My younger sister (Aunt Terra) took her family to a Trisomy 18 conference. She had the chance to meet other families with kids that suffer from Trisomy 13 and 18. She said it was sad, informative, fun to see families from all over. One family came from Sweden, one from Canada and a lot from the US. She talked a lot with a lady that is also an RN and has a daughter the same age as Emerson.
I was in the lobby at a Honda shop waiting for our Pilot's recall to be fixed on Friday morning. I was hoping they would get done while we went out to breakfast; no such luck. The low beam lights could go out at any time. All the sudden I hear on the TV about the shooting in Aura, Colorado. I knew that because they were talking about Batman Mica's ears would perk up. I put them on the empty computer to play on the the PBS website. I have no problem talking to the boys about tragedy. If at all possible I'd like to wait until they are in upper elementary to explain that stuff to them. How do you feel about that? Any advice? I think if something happens here or within our family it's unavoidable; I have to talk to them. It's important to communicate as a family. I just don't want to push that violence is a reality to them so soon.
At home on Saturday morning I got a call from the local police department. A 10 year old boy was missing that lived a few blocks away. It was just a recording describing this kid and what he was wearing. It was just telling us this information because they wanted everyone in the area to look out for him. I listened, hung up the phone, got the food in the car to take it to my parents, made sure Isaak was buckled up and started crying. Mica said, "What's wrong Mommy?" I broke my rule of not talking to them about tragedy's to illustrate a point. I said, "Well Mica that phone call was the police department. A little boy that's only 10 years old is missing. You know how I tell you not to run ahead in stores and at the park?" He said, "Yes." I said, "Well this is the reason why. This little boy is missing. I don't know if he ran away, or was kidnapped. What I do know is I thought about you and how you run ahead. Someone could just take you. I could never see you again. Do you understand what I'm saying?" He said, "Yes." I never did hear if they found him, or not. I don't see anything about this 10 year old on the internet. I can only imagine that he was in fact found. It's such a good thing that a call went out to everyone in the area!
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