This week, I had one of those days when "I'm a bad mother" was echoing through my head. Normally I feel like I do a decent job of parenting and my family is pretty darn wonderful. Most days I believe that. That day, drained by several days that were filled with 16 hours in the car and three work meetings, I was not at my parenting best. I was not quite calm and objective in handling a three year old who soaked a car seat in urine while taking a four hour nap in the car, who attempted to unbuckle the seat belt as we traveled 70 miles per hour on the highway, and who managed to pull out of my grip and dash across the parking lot after we went picked up our dog who had been boarded while we were away.
Not my best day ever.
Watching that chubby body run away in a parking lot filled with cars reminded me of the case of Raquel Nelson. In 2010, she was coming home from shopping with her three children. They were an hour behind schedule because they had missed their bus. Rather than add an extra half mile to her journey by walking to the out of the way crosswalk, she planned to cross the street at the bus stop which was directly across from her apartment building. While they were waiting, other people began to cross, which encouraged her four-year-old to slip out of her hand and start crossing. She followed. She, her son, and her daughter were hit by a drunk driver and the four-year-old boy was killed. The drunk driver who killed the child--and was guilty of two prior hit and run incidents--served only six months of a five-year sentence. Raquel Nelson was tried and convicted of second-degree homicide by a vehicle, crossing roadway elsewhere than a crosswalk and reckless conduct. She had faced up to two years in jail. Somewhere along the way, common sense was injected into the case and at her retrial, she pleaded no contest to the jaywalking charge and the other other charges were dropped.
Luckily, my Boobaloo is slow enough that I was able to recapture that little hand before circumstances conspired against us. The three of us made it home, safely. The car seat cushion had finished washing while we were gone. No one, other than me, attempted to judge my parenting for something that happens all the time. My family remains whole and healthy and safe and mostly sane.
Not my best day ever.
Watching that chubby body run away in a parking lot filled with cars reminded me of the case of Raquel Nelson. In 2010, she was coming home from shopping with her three children. They were an hour behind schedule because they had missed their bus. Rather than add an extra half mile to her journey by walking to the out of the way crosswalk, she planned to cross the street at the bus stop which was directly across from her apartment building. While they were waiting, other people began to cross, which encouraged her four-year-old to slip out of her hand and start crossing. She followed. She, her son, and her daughter were hit by a drunk driver and the four-year-old boy was killed. The drunk driver who killed the child--and was guilty of two prior hit and run incidents--served only six months of a five-year sentence. Raquel Nelson was tried and convicted of second-degree homicide by a vehicle, crossing roadway elsewhere than a crosswalk and reckless conduct. She had faced up to two years in jail. Somewhere along the way, common sense was injected into the case and at her retrial, she pleaded no contest to the jaywalking charge and the other other charges were dropped.
Luckily, my Boobaloo is slow enough that I was able to recapture that little hand before circumstances conspired against us. The three of us made it home, safely. The car seat cushion had finished washing while we were gone. No one, other than me, attempted to judge my parenting for something that happens all the time. My family remains whole and healthy and safe and mostly sane.
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