Sometimes the news is just too much to handle and this is especially true when it is full of awful stories about things happening to children. Just this week, a 6-month-old baby boy in Massachusetts was found in the middle of the street outside a house where one man was murdered and two women were badly injured.

The women are 18 and 36 and the 18-year-old is apparently the child's mother. Besides that, we know very little else about the details of this horrific story, other than witnesses who told ABC News that the man was stabbed to death. Presumably the baby was in the house at the time? It just makes me sick.

I know I can't be the only mom in the world who would often rather turn off her television than hear of another terrible thing happening to another beautiful child.

I suppose whatever became of this family, it could be viewed as merciful, like whoever tried to kill the mom wanted to save the baby by putting him out where he would be found. But still, how does a baby recover from this? What happens now?

His mother is still alive and assuming she makes a recovery, then he will be back with her. But one wonders what he saw and whether he could process that trauma. On the TV show Dexter, little Dexter Morgan witnesses his mother's murder when he was 3-years-old and it turned him into a killer. Obviously, that is fiction, but there is some psychological truth. Could the same thing happen here?

Watching these kinds of stories can haunt us and get in our heads. This is, of course, the problem with the evening news. We hear these awful stories and they stay with us, but we never hear the ending.

What happens when the spotlight fades? Do the people recover? Do they go into foster care? Are the babies adopted? In 20 years are they happy? Thriving?

I would love some follow-up. The fact is, in that brief moment, we care. We want to know. And then it fades, we get busy. But these stories stay with us. I can remember so many horrific stories that I have heard over the years, but we never really know what happens after.

The media spotlight disappears and these families are left to pick up the pieces of their tragedy. Stories like these haunt everyone, moms and non-moms alike.

I hope this baby's mother recovers and that he saw none of the horrific things that happened. But I would love to know that will be the case.

Do you ever wonder what happens after in news stories like these?

 

Image via jayneandd/Flickr