Sometimes I Can't Hold Them Close Enough

As a mother I've become hopelessly protective of my children. Not in a creepy, keep-them-locked-in-the-bathroom-until-they're-18 kind of way, but in a don't-look-at-my-kids-for-too-long-unless-you-have-a-good-reason kind of way.

I get furious when I see another kid push one of mine in daycare, (even though I know Owen almost certainly pushed the other kid first). I get defensive when someone criticizes their behavior, I cling fiercely to Owen's hand in crowded places and I over-prepare even my own mother before leaving her alone with them for even an hour or two.

I don't see any of this as overkill though. I think it's a parent's job to protect her kids from all of the potential dangers in the world, at least until they're old enough to protect themselves.

And then things like the horrific murder-suicide in Springfield happen.

For those who haven't read the stories, according to the reports, a guy picked his two kids (ages 2 and 6) up at daycare, drove to the parking lot of the factory where his ex-girlfriend works, and set the car on fire, killing himself and both kids. The woman saw the whole thing happen and was so distraught she is being treated at a local psychiatric facility.

Of course now the details are trickling out. The Herald says the guy had told his mother last month that he was overwhelmed with responsibility. The couple had apparently recently split and he had moved out. He says she wasn't letting him spend time with the kids. And so on.

Do any of these excuses really matter? Is there any justification for hurting your children at all, let alone burning them alive?

The story just makes me sick and the thought of what those children must have gone through makes me incredibly sad. We live in a world now where things are so unsafe that parents have to go through CORI checks to chaperone a field trip, schools are locking their doors and putting up metal detectors and you can't even bring a bottle of water on a plane. We have turned into a society focused on protecting ourselves and our families from everyone around us.

Unfortunately, in this terrible case, these poor children weren't even safe with their own father.

This story makes me want to grab my children and my husband and pull us all into a tight little huddle, and keep us there until this and all of the other horrific stories like it go away. But since I know I can't do that, I'm left instead with the unshakeable image of those two young kids.

Their lives were cut short in such an unimaginable way just so their father could have the last word with their mother. Well, he certainly showed her.