Bamboola Baby

We used to walk to school when I was small. Alone. There was no fear. We played games with our friends on our way and told each other jokes and complained about homework. My kids will never have these memories.

I used to walk to preschool with my kids. Every day. Rain or shine. Hot or cold. We walked. My younger son happily clinched to my chest, often peacefully sleeping. My older son sitting in the stroller or skittering around joyfully. We sang. We talked. We laughed. Sometimes, we dealt with tantrums and sudden feelings as they came and went. We used to stop at the playground. Some days we used to go for a cone of ice cream. We had fun walking to preschool and then walking back home.

We no longer do that. I decided not to because my heart is filled with fear. Because some teenagers are stupid and cruel and play a violent game called knockout… And I am scared. Not so much for myself, but for my little boys with fragile bones and tiny bodies and delicate souls.

I feel sad for what the world has become, for what our everyday routines look like, for all these daily things that make up our kids’ childhood. Childhood is no longer worry-free running outside, giggling. I see kids walking around with their parents tightly holding hands. I see kids on leashes. I guess it’s ok because we all want to protect them. But I still feel sad for my kids having such a childhood where fear takes over their innocent experiences.

I also feel disgusted and shaken. These violent teenagers disgust me for being so ruthless. Their parents disgust me for raising such cruel savages and allowing them to act like this. What? Oh, it’s supposed to be funny? Looks more like a murder attempt to me … Take that woman at 2nd minute of the video who got attached from the back – what if she was pregnant? The guy who hit her wouldn’t know because he never saw her from the front. I guess he wouldn’t care anyway… Does he realize such a violent attack on a pregnant woman would most likely take her baby’s life and shatter hers? What if she was wearing a baby on her chest? What would happen to the baby’s fragile skull? What if she walked with small kids who would get terrified and started helplessly running around in terror while her face was buried in the concrete…

“… It could be anybody. It could be a mother with her children …”

And apparently, a defenseless mother is a great target, according to Hot 97:

“… Pregnant women with children are the easiest targets …”

Where is police now when we need them to protect us and our innocent children? Oh wait, I forgot, they’re busy distributing parking tickets and harassing a mom in the park for letting her 2-year old son (who can’t hold it anymore) pee on a tree (there are no bathrooms in the park and home is too far) because that’s totally criminal and because dogs totally don’t pee (or defecate) all over the place. I am shaking my head and crying tears for my kids’ childhood… a childhood filled with less fun and more fear.