I'm NOT Judgemental, I'm PERFECT!

....or possibly the EXACT opposite, and I am ashamed to have to admit it.

I unfortunately have watched the news, with all it's stories of death and horror. I've watched as they spin a story of a parent who left their child unattended in the car while they went inside to buy Lotto tickets. They careless parent had left the door unlocked and running as they stayed for countless minutes chatting it up with the cashier about the latest score of the last Piston's game. Not only moments later was the child kidnapped and taken off to a sweat shop and worked for pennies on the hour while being starved to death. All the while painting the parent as the most negligent, unloving human being on earth.I'd stand up and spout about how horrible that parent was. How could they neglect that poor innocent child! I'd judge and I'd slander that parent, sure that I would never do ANYTHING like that.

Actually the story probably went more like this...The parent had a sleeping child in the car, a child who hadn't slept in days and they couldn't bare to wake them up. The parent had pumped the gas and unfortunately only had cash on them. (Maybe they had lost the credit card, maybe their credit wasn't good enough for them to have a credit card, regardless, it happens) They knew they'd only be in there for two seconds, so they took a chance. It was a sweltering hot day, so instead of suffocating the child, they rolled down the window a bit. They grabbed the keys, locked the doors, ran inside and realized they didn't have exact change. They kept glancing up at the car every few seconds while searching through their pockets, but SOMEHOW, the kidnapper got their arm through that open window, unlocked the door, and hot wired the car, driving off with the innocent child. Leaving the parent in RUINS! Their child was missing and their heart was in pieces.

But did the media care what the real story was? Did they bother to get the fact straight that the child was actually 9, an ideal age to begin leaving a child alone in the car, and not 5 as they had spun the story? The child LOOKED 5 in the pictures. Did they bother to talk to anyone who knew how the kidnapper got away with the car? They drove the car away, so the parent MUST have left the keys in the ignition. All the little facts, spun into a web of untruths. And there I sat, feeling no respect or sympathy for the parent who MUST have neglected this child.

Well my friends, this is something I will never do again. I now realize how cruel and inaccurate the media can be. After the death of my friends child, I have come to be shocked and sickened by how the media can spin a story. I am disgusted by how other people, people who know nothing of the truth, can slander and judge and comment on how horrible and negligent my friend MUST have been to let this horrific accident happen to their child.

These poor parents, who have just lost their son forever, who were forced to pick out his very last set of clothing ever, who will never again hold their child in their arms, have not as much as been given a chance to mourn and or make funeral arrangements. They are not able to go home and collect their thoughts, as their home is swarmed with news vans and press. How heartless people can be.

How often have I left my child playing in their bedroom, gone to the bathroom, and came back only to find them sifting through the refrigerator. My own parents had put me down for nap, gone to the kitchen to start the dishes, and received a knock on the door only moments later from the neighbor who had found me playing in the middle of the street. We are human. We are parents. We are FAR from perfect. This could have happened to anyone, even twice! We have to keep in mind there are more circumstances behind the scenes than what the news has to offer. Even the small details, such as "only having cash" can happen to all of us, but still end up to be such a HUGE factor in something so dreadful.

So my request of you guys today is this. Don't believe everything you hear on the news! Don't judge a situation without knowing the characters involved. My heart is aching for my friend and her family. If anything, please find yourself just a tad less judgmental today. I know I have!