Ryan KennedyIf you asked most parents what they would do to spend more time with their dying child, the answer would be a resounding "anything!" Mom Kimberly Morris-Karp, however, is putting aside that fierce desire to hang on to every second of her 9-year-old son's life so that he can better live the time he has left.

Ryan Kennedy was 4 when he was diagnosed with a rare form of brain cancer. According to a story in The Oakland Press, for the past five years, he's undergone countless treatments, seven surgeries, and fought the "fight" against cancer. Recently, however, when doctors said there was another surgery that could perhaps prolong his life for several more months, he said no, and he said it vehemently.

Have your tissues ready? Good. Because there is nothing in this world that makes me cry like seeing children fighting cancer. And the hemoncology department at Seattle Children's Hospital is counting on that. They've taken Kelly Clarkson's power anthem, "Stronger," and made the viral video that will have everyone crying this week.

Crying. And then opening their checkbooks ... well, I hope anyway. If you watch children with no hair left on their heads lip-syncing to a song about being strong and don't have tears streaming down your face, I'm going to ahead and say it.

Funny, bright, and brave 12-year-old Cody Green lost his battle with leukemia on Saturday night. As a mom, my heart breaks for his parents ... even as it swells for the members of the United States Marine Corps who honored Cody in his final hours.

Cody always admired the Marines and faced cancer with the same fighting spirit. Not surprisingly, the Marines admired Cody right back.

So when they heard he was in the hospital (cancer free, but gravely ill with an infection that attacked his brain because his immune system was so weak from chemotherapy), they treated him like one of their own.

In fact, they made him one of their own.

Guilt seems to be all over Patricia Krentcil's face. The insanely tan 44-year-old woman was recently arrested for allegedly taking her 5-year-old daughter, Anna, into a tanning booth in New Jersey. The girl was seen at school with a sunburn, and classmates say she told them she "went tanning with Mommy." Teachers called authorities, and Krentzil was arrested on second-degree child endangerment charges.

According to NBC, Krentcil denies it, and she says that while she does take the girl (who has turned 6 since the incident) to the tanning salon with her, she doesn't let her get her own tan on. She just plays in the room while mommy bakes herself silly. The girl's burns supposedly were just a plain old sunburn, from the sun, and the whole thing was a misunderstanding.

I'm sorry but ... yeah right.

I've seen headlines announcing toxins in our children's food, playgrounds, baby bottles, and anything else that comes in contact with our little ones, so many times that my eyes have started to glaze over. Which is ridiculous since these toxic dyes and chemicals are likely contributing to a higher rate of pediatric cancer here in the United States, ADHD, and those oh-so-annoying food allergies. However, something I read just woke me up and I have to say I am rightly pissed.

Did you know that as many organizations have been battling major food corporations to remove toxic dyes and preservatives from food marketed at our children, these same corporations have already done it -- in other countries?

We see cases in which children have been sexually assaulted every day. From big, shocking, headline-making scandals like the one fueled by Jerry Sandusky's atrocious acts to the one-off incidents in which teachers, coaches, and other trusted adults take advantage of innocent children. We gasp and are outraged, but most of all we worry what if that was our child.

More importantly, however, we must ask what we can do to lessen the odds that our children will be victims. While there are no guarantees that we can we can keep them safe, there are some steps we can take to help do so. As April is Sexual Assault Awareness Month, I caught up with folks at the Rape, Abuse, and Incest National Network (RAINN) who provided the following five tips for parents to help protect children from sexual predators:

We all know that the days of letting kids out to run the streets and telling them to be back before dinner are long gone. It would be startling, to say the least, to see a roving pack of neighborhood kids kicking cans down the street and enticing a stray dog to come along for the ride. While we always say this shift is due to neurotic parents who are over-hyping the danger of allowing kids to be on their own, one blogger created a chart that shows the flaw in this simplistic explanation.

In fact, many factors go into this when it comes to how much outdoor time our kids are getting these days. From long commutes cutting into the evening prime "play time" hours to kids making friends outside of their neighborhoods, Rethinking Childhood lays out some pretty compelling reasons why we won't find our kids engaged in a game of stick ball in the street.

In my family, however, there is one more huge reason why we don't have a ton of outdoor playtime. Me.

This is one of those stories that makes me want to lock up my children and never let them leave the house again, or move to a deserted island where no one could ever harm them. Something, somewhere where things like the tragic senseless death of 10-year-old Joanna Ramos aren't possible.

It happened in Long Beach, California, one day after classes at Willard Elementary School in February. According to the Los Angeles Times, Ramos and an 11-year-old schoolmate were reportedly arguing over what many fourth grade girls argue over -- a boy. They planned to meet after school and fight it out in an alley near the school, and that's when the plan went horribly wrong.