"Make Safe Happen"
As a person who works in television news, I understand when people say, "I don't watch the news there are too many bad things on TV." Sometimes there are. I also believe most stations have gotten the collective memo on this and are going in a direction that blends positive community stories with the hard news of the day. But that's a bit of a tangent on local news.
Don't get me wrong, there are fun blogs, celebrity gossip and adorable pictures mixed into my feed. (I also understand Facebook is crazy smart, and I likely have more news stories because I click on them. Well played, Facebook.)
Today as I scrolled through I read about a shooting after prom in Antigo, Wisconsin. I used to work in Wausau, WI and Antigo was in our coverage area so I have friends posting about this. Awful. Just awful. Kids can't go to prom anymore?
Then I read about three children dying after IKEA furniture toppled on them. The posts explained how you should anchor furniture to the wall to keep your family safe. I need to do what? I started looking around. There are a lot of things that could fall on Jack. This situation and task seem equal parts petrifying and daunting.
Yesterday, we were at an event and there was a bounce house. My husband looked at me and said, I'm sure you won't let Jack in there. (I wouldn't because he's too little and the big kids had taken over.) But he was actually referencing a fear I shared with him after reading a story about bounce houses taking flight on windy days and children dying.
But here's the truth. My child will go to Prom (assuming he wants to). I will take a look at our less sturdy furniture and see if it needs to be removed. I will also make sure to teach him that drawers aren't steps/ladders and furniture is not a toy. But I probably won't anchor everything.
And Jack someday will go in a bounce house. Probably countless bounce houses.
A friend recently asked me how I handle it. How I handle being a parent while working in news. I know all the obscure, bad things that can happen. I told her, I handle it by trying to learn a lesson from everything but not allowing it to paralyze me. In this world where information is now at all of our fingertips, I felt compelled to share this with all of you. Having a feed of negative, frightening facts is not likely something you're used to. Here's my simple gauge. We've heard it before but one of the most dangerous things we can do is get in a car. I want to live a life where I experience the world. Therefore, I plan to get into a car almost everyday. Which means I have to be willing to do the other things too.
The title of this blog is "make safe happen" because it is a quote a grieving mother once told me. She had lost her 1-year-old son in a terribly tragic way. I talked to her and her husband about whether it's difficult to continue on without letting fear control everything for their other children. She told me her message, "make safe happen." That has always stuck with me. We can't control everything. As parents we want to. We can't. But we can learn, adapt, be smart and allow ourselves to live. And maybe start clicking on more positive stories to trick the Facebook gods into seeing we don't need so much scary stuff all the time.
(I didn't want to bog down the post with depressing news articles about the topics referenced above, but if you would like to learn more, I've linked info below.)
Antigo Prom Shooting
IKEA furniture deaths
Bouncy house problems
Safe at Sleep: story about dangers of sleeping in car seats
A friend recently asked me how I handle it. How I handle being a parent while working in news. I know all the obscure, bad things that can happen. I told her, I handle it by trying to learn a lesson from everything but not allowing it to paralyze me. In this world where information is now at all of our fingertips, I felt compelled to share this with all of you. Having a feed of negative, frightening facts is not likely something you're used to. Here's my simple gauge. We've heard it before but one of the most dangerous things we can do is get in a car. I want to live a life where I experience the world. Therefore, I plan to get into a car almost everyday. Which means I have to be willing to do the other things too.
The title of this blog is "make safe happen" because it is a quote a grieving mother once told me. She had lost her 1-year-old son in a terribly tragic way. I talked to her and her husband about whether it's difficult to continue on without letting fear control everything for their other children. She told me her message, "make safe happen." That has always stuck with me. We can't control everything. As parents we want to. We can't. But we can learn, adapt, be smart and allow ourselves to live. And maybe start clicking on more positive stories to trick the Facebook gods into seeing we don't need so much scary stuff all the time.
(I didn't want to bog down the post with depressing news articles about the topics referenced above, but if you would like to learn more, I've linked info below.)
Antigo Prom Shooting
IKEA furniture deaths
Bouncy house problems
Safe at Sleep: story about dangers of sleeping in car seats
