The first few years of life are the most precious, and the most fragile. Some people fear leaving their littlest ones with a babysitter. Others fear exposing their tots to germs via play groups or just dirty floors. I always had the fear of dropping dead and leaving my little one all alone, with no way to fend for herself.
Now that my kids are older and able to open the fridge and use the phone, I feel like that one might have been a little ridiculous. Then I read a story like this tragic one out of Australia and feel like perhaps I dodged a bullet.
Sadly, a 2-year-old girl was left alone inside her house with her dead mother. By the time authorities discovered her, she was barely alive herself.
While the causes of death are not clear in this case, it does sound like the mother had an unspecified health issue. It reminds me of that scene in Steel Magnolias when Julia Roberts collapses and her baby is found crying on the floor next to her. Just thinking about it gives me chills. The only thing this little girl had near her was Easter candy, and that's what she ate to survive. Still, she was reportedly in horrible shape by the time she was found.
Until our babies are old enough to truly get help when they need it, we're all they've got. I wonder if this single mom had family or friends that knew about her condition, and they just happened to be out of town or had reason to not check in with her and her child. The little girl is with her grandmother now, so at least someone is around to care for that traumatized child.
Additionally, neighbors aren't exactly up in your business like they used to be, so it would make sense that no one around her home would be the wiser about the horrors going on inside as a toddler tried to hang on to life as she was trapped inside with her dead mother.
It's the stuff nightmares are made of, mine especially.
What's your biggest child-related fear?
Image via JanetR3/Flickr
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Comments 62
This is a real fear of mine. My husband is gone for long periods of time with his job, and was in Afghanistan for 18 months when our son was first born. I would have near panic attacks, thinking of all the things that could happen to me and our baby boy would be all alone. I make my mom check in with me every day still just so I have that reassurance that if something were to happen, it wouldn't take days for someone to find him.
Had to do some digging to find a good article about this, but here it is:
http://www.news.com.au/national/child-spent-five-days-in-house-with-dead-mother/story-e6frfkvr-1226329571829
I have worried about this myself, though not so much anymore as my older children could call 911.
This was a fear of mine as well and when we had problems with our younger son getting into the refrigerator during the night and we had to lock it and the food cabinets I showed my daughter (16 mo older) how to open them, so that if anything ever happened, they would be ok. It does feel irrational now, but then you hear about these stories like this one and the one where the child survived on ketchup, its terrifying.
My kids were alone with my late husband when he died. I had just gone over to my mother's trailer across the yard. My kids were between 7 and 12 at the time, but he was always goofing off so they thought he was playing... until he didn't respond. Then one of my daughters came over and said he was sick. I didn't think anything of it because she wasn't panicking. When I returned home, it was over, but my oldest described in detail what happened. I can't get that out of my head and I got all my kids into therapy immediately. You don't plan for this to happen at 32 years of age and I was only gone about 5 minutes before it happened. It scares me today because I now have a 2-yr-old grand daughter I babysit and another grand baby on the way and my daughter is a single mom. All I can think is..What if...
I am worried about this too. My kids are 4, 2, and 5 months and my husband works 48-72 hours straight. I have been thinking about teaching my oldest on how to use my cell phone and the house phone so she could make a phone call in an emergency. She knows how to open the door, even with the child locks, so she should also learn that it is ok to go to the neighbors if there is an emergency too. These are the things I do not want to think about but need to.
I have an almost paralyzing fear of driving across a bridge and somehow losing control of the car and plunging into the water. Then, I won't be able to get them out of their car seats. It is better now that they are older and only have one still in a car seat, but when they were really little, I would tear up and shake driving over bridges. I know, I am very weird.