Posted on 11/02/2011 11:40:36 AM PDT by Mountain Bike Vomit Carnage
Time and again the headlines are filled with stories of young children left home alone. Typically they're found fine, and we all fret about what could have happened. In Joplin, Missouri, however, it's what did happen that's heartbreaking.
According to The Joplin Globe, Eric Hicks, 28, was watching his girlfriend's 18-month-old son, Emjay Corn, Saturday morning. He had an appointment at a methadone clinic, but instead of taking the boy with him or finding alternative care for him, he just left him there, alone in his crib. Sometime later the boy was found dead.
The boy's cause of death is still under investigation, and Hicks has been charged with felony child endangerment. Other details are murky as to why police arrived at the house when there was no record of a call being made to them that day and where the mother was. But regardless of the specifics, on the surface, it's such a blatant and sad example of why young children should never be left home alone -- not for an hour, not even for a couple of minutes.
It's hard to find child care, I know. And for some who have to work to pay the rent or keep medical appointments, leaving the children alone may feel like the only option, perhaps especially so for someone coping with drug addiction. But it never can be. Even children who are sleeping or otherwise engaged can get into a dangerous situation in no time at all. People who don't understand that shouldn't be left in charge of them.
I feel for this entire family. I can only imagine their pain and suffering right now as they piece together what happened, contemplate what they could have done to prevent it, and beat themselves up for the rest of their lives over what they didn't do. But that's the thing when it comes to our children's safety -- we don't get do-overs, and that's why we have to put it first, above anything else.
If mom was mandated to a psych hospital and during the morning workup it was discovered that she had a small child at home, who may have been at risk, the hosptial social worker would have called the police to investigate and get the local Child Protective Services involved. Therefore no call.
That bears repeating.
“Positively no dogs allowed,
except for seeing-eye dogs.”
I'm a semi-libertarian. For most libertarians I know who are opposed to the War on Drugs, it's not that there's a desire for drugs, it's that the War on Drugs has an impact on our society that seems worse than the impact of drug use: restrictions on civil liberties and privacy as a result of the drug war; gang fights for drug turf; etc.
“Trust me,” my friend said. “You do not want to have a child named ‘Jane Do’. Just trust me on this...”
A coworker’s first name choice for her expected daughter would have given her the initials “E.Z.” I pointed that out to her and she went with plan B.
Until about the age of two, you can’t trust a baby to be alone for even a minute.
But I think, after the age of two, you can start letting the child have a sense of independence in small amounts.
wow you mean you never slept for 2 years? or did you take turns with your spouse and stare at him all through each night for 2 years?
I’m talking about during the waking hours.
During the sleeping hours, is probably fine. :)
Like friggin' heart attack, Mr. Ratman. I'm joyful your situation is a happy one. That usually is the case with normal, STABLE individuals. Sadly, we read and hear all too often of kids who start having kids young, no stable home life and no regular good male influence. Just a series of drunken and/or drug addled "boyfriends" who have no interest in the kids and eventually lose their cool with them because they are a glaring reminder that their love monkey was plooking someone else before them. THAT is where my remark was aimed. I'm sure you knew that.
For the record I lost my husband when my kids were young. It never occurred to me to run out and find another man. I didn't want to "replace" their daddy who loved them with all his might.
Who said anything about replacing the dad. If people where to take your view then Susan Smith is how some will look at mothers. I perfer to look at each case and person, generalizations to easy.
Point well taken; I share that view on the so-callled war on drugs.
My original post was meant for those who clothe themselves in the libertarian blanket when all they really care about is the price and availability of drugs for their personal use. As I alluded to earlier, the rationale that drug use is always or mostly a victimless crime does not hold water when one looks at the evidence, such as in the above article. I have also witnessed things throughout my own life.
Even so, a free society based on person responsibility trumps the ‘evils’ of drugs, guns,...even jumping off bridges. I am only acknowledging that, like fire, these things are beneficial but can also be harmful to oneself and/or others.
The reason I maintain my position is that, prior to the 1900's, opium, cocaine, and other substances were, for the most part, legally available, and the United States managed to survive. The feds only really started regulating access to the above drugs in the 1914 Harrison Narcotics Tax Act. Meanwhile, drugs were not a visible scourge in our cities until after Congress passed things like the Boggs Act of 1952 and the Narcotics Control Act of 1956.
Each attempt to enforce the "Drug War" actually made things worse.
Oh dear...What I meant by that was that most of these girl-women can’t seem to function without a boyfriend, no matter how useless in their lives. Their self worth is tied to attracting a man and keeping them, often at the risk of the safety and security of their children. This plays out with alarming frequency here in the rural Ozarks, since jobs are few and drug abuse and alcoholism is rampant. It’s a generational thing here. So my view is tinted by seeing it so often.
Granted, our sitch was different, but I’ve shown and taught mine by example that they shouldn’t link their worthiness as a human being to having a boyfriend around and that bad choices domino into poverty and despair. That’s all I was meaning by that. (Now once they are grown and out of the house, and I’m old and alone I just might take up with some old, gray and feeble feller just for company. But right now that ain’t in the cards and oddly, I’m very content about that.)
The problem is two-fold women who have no spine and predatory males who should be castrated or killed when they commit their crimes. Family used to be how these situations were kept under control, now not so much many families no longer look after their own. I commend you on your family dedication.
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