Safety Net

The subject of child safety has been on my mind lately. It started last week, after there was a multiple homicide in our comfy, homey little Chittenden County. A domestic dispute in the town of Essex left 2 women dead, one of which was shot in a school. A truely sad and senseless act of violence. On a sidenote, has anyone ever commited murder that was full of sense??
The next day as I left Baxter at daycare, I had an admitted illogical sense of fear for his welfare. What if someone barged into the center and started shooting?! I had to force myself to keep driving home, that he would be ok, that it was more likely that we would be in a car accident to witness daycare violence. Then tonight, my sister Danielle who lives with us asked if she could take Bax to the county fair. Seems perfectly fine and safe, Danielle is a fairly sharp person and lovingly cares for her nephew and niece when she's in charge. However, both Jennie and I had pangs of fear when we thought of Baxter without his parental protectors. Anyway, he went and was fine and had an absolute blast. As wet-behind-the-ears parents, we are still learning to trust others with our children and its hard. I remarked recently that I don't fully feel like the kids are safe unless I'm physically by their side. One could take this to mean that I don't trust anyone but myself. I tried to explain that I knew this was irrational but it didn't come off cleanly and I think I slightly insulted Jen. I think the moral of the story is that parents love their children with such a passion, we have a hard time understanding how we could live without them and that we need to have the complete control over their wellbeing. I should add that our direct family also loves our kids with similiar abnormal-ness and wouldn't let anything happen to them either. It helps my sanity to keep this in mind.
On a lighter note, Baxter had a rough allergy spell a few nights ago. He woke at midnight on Monday, which was the last night of a hellish call weekend for Jennie(& us). You see, his father forgot(what was I saying earlier about being the guardian of wellness/safety?) to give his dose of Zirtec for seasonal allergies, resulting in an itchy nose. After pushing the meds (that's doctor talk for "giving the medicine"), I knew it would take a while to kick in and thus, we were going to be up for an indeterminate amount of time. So I asked if he wanted to lay in mommy and daddy's bed (Jennie was absent this night). He said yes and while we made our way to the room he asked," Watch baseball?" Well, the Sox were on the west coast and the game was still on, so that's exactly what we did. I fell asleep for a few minutes and thought he would do the same. Except that when I woke and looked over, he was still watching the game. This was even more extraordinary because the Sox were (and still are) in the midst of a major losing streak. Thus, never let it be said that Bax is a fair-weather fan, he can watch the BoSox even when they are stinking up the joint. I think he was contemplating who Boston should keep for '07 and which players should be traded, he's got Theo on his toy phone speed dial.

We're off for the Lowell family traditional Labor Day blowout at Star Lake in the Adirondacks. Hope everyone has a safe and fun holiday weekend.

See you on the playground.