Are we losing them?

Yeah, so let me be upfront. I'm not a parent. I have grand respect for those who are. It's a major sacrifice, albeit for a fulfilling reason. My best friend is mom to my two godchildren. My sister is mom to my two nephews. I love those four children more than I ever knew I was capable of loving any thing living or otherwise. I would physically hurt anybody who ever hurt any of those kids. So maybe I'm not a parent, but I "get it". Like what I feel, but on major steroids.

So yesterday I wrote about an 18 year old kid who did something unthinkably stupid, almost losing his life in the process.

I started out writing planning a scathing evisceration of the child and his stupidity, but as I wrote, sympathy creeped in. I started to feel sad for the kid. Wondered about his parents, where were they in his life? I've known folks who were great parents who still had a kid gone wrong, but that's more of an exception. I've been thinking a lot about the role of parents in a kid's life. And how hard it is to be a good parent, how even the best make mistakes.

So I became real saddened to read an article in today's Las Cruces Sun News titled "Teen drinks herself into a coma".

Another case of a kid doing something unthinkably stupid. This petite 5'1" girl was found with a blood alcohol content of .50. No, not a mistype. Legal limit is .08. Hers was .50.

She's fifteen.

She didn't die, which is amazing, but was thrown into a coma. Unsure yet what the long term damage will be to a still developing girl. For now, thankful she's alive.

So it gives me pause....are more kids finding trouble these days, or is the news just reporting it more? Because from where I'm sitting I think we're losing the battle to keep our kids safe and sane. It may be media hype getting me all riled up, I don't know.

What I do know is that I can go to school every single day with those four beautiful children I adore but I still can't keep them safe. And maybe my goddaughter makes good choices but her friends don't. What then?

I know these are the things that keep parents up at night. These are the things that keep Niña Karen up at night, now, too.

My thoughts to the family of that young girl in Las Cruces. Much like I said yesterday, I hope as she lays there recovering she has some deep, serious thoughts about the trajectory of her life.....

And for the second day in a row, I opine that you can learn from your unthinkably stupid mistakes, or you can be doomed to keep going down that road.

Meanwhile, I want to hug all my godkids a lot right now. You think my boss would let me out of work early for that?