♫ Help a Mom out!

Over the last few weeks, I've had all this inspiration to write mom-help blogs. And for fear of being judged or criticized, I've chosen to ignore that little prodding inside. It must be a rebellious day, because I've changed my mind. And instead of writing a few different plea-for-advice blogs, I'm putting them all in this one, in a shorter, easier to read form. Be gentle.

**Nightmares**

My oldest has gone from nightmaring, to slumbering so hard, I have to stick my finger under her nose every night to make sure she's still breathing (yes, I really do it every night). My youngest, only a year behind her, has hit that stage. Every night she wakes up with a nightmare.

We've gotten in to quite the routine. She wakes up, sits up, hollers for me, I go in, she tells me that her heart is broken again (cutest thing everrrrr, right?!), and that she wants to pray about her bad dream. We do, she goes back to sleep, usually peacefully.

Dilemma: It's cold in my house at night, I'm lazy, and after a really rough night last night, Brandon and I reflected on our childhoods and remembered both of our parents asking us to come to their room to report the offense, getting told to get a drink, and go back to bed. I wonder, dear moms, is it the cold house that spurs this decision? Am I doing it backwards or spoiling her by going to her? What did your parents do when you were little?

**Mammaaaaaa, don't leeeeeeeave!**

My oldest, once again for comparison, never went through the abandonment fear. EVER. She also never went through a terrible two, three, or four. So, when my youngest came along, I assumed I'd rock the toddler stages out again with ease. To my surprise, as of late, my youngest has a new fear of me leaving her. She cries, tells me that she is going to miss me, and according to reports...quits the second I walk out of the house.

I normally handle it by giving her extra loves and snuggles, telling her our entire agenda for the day (where she'll be, where I'll be, when we'll be home together, etc.), then I make sure she knows I love her, and I leave. It's gotten slightly better this week, fingers crossed it continues.

Dilemma: Is four the normal age for this, or is it the new routine/new school dance that we're doing? Am I handling it right?

**MY Nightmares**

Obviously, like any mom, my nightmares are that somebody will harm or steal my children in some way. I can't ask for advice, because there is only one way to extinguish that fear: stop loving.. I'll live with the nightmares, thank you very much.

Dilemma: What do you do to ensure the safety of your child? WHY do we tolerate things like this: Sick and Disturbing? (In case you're afraid to click on it, it goes to Amazon dot com, and the only thing that will make your gut churn or raise your brow, is a book title. There are no pictures or not-safe-for-work material.)

It's infuriating that we're enabling! This is only one sick example...there are creepy books, websites, and useful information at hand for scary, scary people to get ahold of...but what do we do as an act of prevention, rather than waiting until something occurs?

Would you consider yourself overprotective?

Yours Truly,
Nomz

** Child Abuse Casts a shadow

Another Guest Blogger! Enjoy, and share your thoughts, please!
-Nomz and Sazaran

“Child abuse casts a shadow the length of a lifetime.”

Herbert Ward

It breaks my heart every single day to know that at least 4 children in America have died from child abuse. What a selfish act to hurt an innocent child, toddler, or infant. The most disturbing part for me to swallow is most of the abusers are either a Mother or a Father to these children. These are the people children are suppose to be able to run to when they need comfort, love, attention, and support. Instead they raise their hands at them and think thats a better to take care of the situation. What are we doing as a society to help? Most of us seem to look the other way and never report it. A call to the police could change a child’s life, even save a life.

CPS is a place I feel needs to re-educate their staffing. So many times Mothers with post partum depression are let off the hook with a slap on the wrist. Then later they have abused their children or even kill them. If these workers would just take a minute to actually do their job more lives would be saved. If someone is sitting there saying I think my child belongs with God you shouldn’t just shrug that off. That’s a direct threat to the child.

I also strongly believe that foster parents need to be evaluated just a tad bit more. I read a case where a foster parent had a child in her care for less then a few hours and struck a blow to a six year olds head and killed him. To me it’s so simple if you don’t want to look after children as a foster parent then don’t become one. These children need a safe place to go, and just putting them right back in danger really gets my blood to boil. Maybe if the state would put cameras in their home it wouldn’t even cross their mind to hurt a child.

Where is the justice for these concrete angels? So many of the abusers are walking free as of right now! How is that justice? You can get more time for killing a cow or a dog than a child? We need to step up and open our eyes. We need to speak up for those who can’t speak for themselves! We go to great lengths to protect other countries but look at what is happening right under our noses.

Mothers, Fathers, brothers, sisters, and grandparents if you feel so much stress or anger towards a child call help. Put the child in a safe place while you take a ten minute break to collect your thoughts. It only takes 3 seconds to shake a baby so hard they will be handicapped or killed. Remember that a baby never died from crying, but a baby can die from blunt force!

You can call me Junbzee.

-- Edits from D.O. --

If you suspect child abuse, please call (in the USA):

1-800-4-A-CHILD (422-4453).

For more information regarding child abuse, please visit this site.