I've just finished reading a story in today's Sydney Morning Herald. A 31 year old New Zealand woman was sentenced to jail for the manslaughter of her two month old son. After going on a 12 (twelve!) hour drinking binge, she had an argument with her partner (imagine that) and took the baby out with her to sleep in her car. It must have seemed like such a great idea at the time. Sadly, when she awoke from her drunken stupor, her baby was dead. She had accidentally suffocated him. She was given two years and three months in jail. Reckless endangerment of a child resulting in death. The same woman had previously lost another child to Sudden Infant Death Syndrome some years before. Is this even relevant to the first part of the story? I don't know, you tell me.
Last week, video was captured (and youtubed around the world) of a baby being placed inside a washing machine at a New Jersey laundromat. The machine locked and began filling with water. The video clearly shows the couple (assumed at first to be the boy's parents) panicking and trying to open the door as the child sloshed around in the machine. Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, a staffer at the laundry managed to get the machine door open. The boy is (allegedly) fine and it turns out it wasn't his parents, but the babysitter and her boyfriend who thought it would be cute to put a BABY in a WASHING MACHINE and SHUT THE FREAKING DOOR.
The child's mother initially made statements to the effect that she forgave them and was all 'oh anyone could make a mistake'. Then she appeared on the Today show (why not?) and now it seems she's going to press charges against both the sitter and her boyfriend. Press charges? Someone did that to my baby, there would be no charges to press, believe me.
You don't have to search very hard or far to find a gazillion stories just like these where innocent children are placed in harm's way thanks to the actions of their parents or carers. I'm just going to come right out and say that some people should not be allowed to procreate. And some people should never be put in a position where any vestige of responsibility or plain old common sense might be expected of them. Since it is clearly beyond some people, the best thing is for them to keep a respectful distance.
Please don't tell me it is everyone's God given biological right to have a child. Just because you have the plumbing doesn't always make it a good idea.
Yes, sometimes terrible freak accidents happen. Beyond our control. Extenuating circumstances. The best intentions go awry. Good people have momentary lapses of judgement. No one is perfect. I know all that but as far as I can tell, that's not what happened in either of these cases.
I get that the mother of the dead baby was probably desperately unhappy. She'd already lost one child after all. But you know what? If that had happened to me and I'd been blessed with another baby, I think I'd be doing everything in my power to take care of that new baby and I'm pretty damn sure that would not involve me drinking for 12 straight hours then taking the baby out to the CAR with me to sleep it off. And what was wrong with the father that he let her take the baby out of the house in that state? Oh, wait, lemme guess.
And should washing machine baby's mama bear any responsibility at all for the fact that she entrusted her small child to two
complete halfwits people of questionable ability to care for him? It's only by God's grace that that baby did not drown or incur some terrible injury.
The next time my child asks me why HE can't have a brother or a sister like most all of his friends, I'm going to tell him that God's plan for us must be to spend all our time caring just for him. Maybe God is protecting us from ourselves. Who knows, if we had another baby we might suddenly forget ourselves, accidentally pop it in the washing machine and press play. Really, it could happen to anyone.
