OT: Hug your kids

[LMO429]

it is not very tactful or kind to try to make these parent sfeel like it is THEIR fault!!! that there are perverts and evil people in this world. boy, try to lay the guilt on, why don't you? there have been evil people, stealing children out of their bedrooms in the middle of the night. you can't watch your kids constantly.. lay off these poor , grieving parents

I think you are taking what kimisabella posted out of context.

 

[kimisabella]

it is not very tactful or kind to try to make these parent sfeel like it is THEIR fault!!! that there are perverts and evil people in this world. boy, try to lay the guilt on, why don't you? there have been evil people, stealing children out of their bedrooms in the middle of the night. you can't watch your kids constantly.. lay off these poor , grieving parents

Are you kidding me? I can't make anyone FEEL anything. Show me where I said it is the parents fault? It's my OPINION that they will re-living their decision making for the rest of their life - if you think they won't be you are kidding yourself.

 

[kimisabella]

I think you are taking what kimisabella posted out of context.

Thanks Lauren - I love it when people put things in other people's mouth or take things out of context to make themselves look good.

 

[ChrystalUnicorn]

This sickens me. My heart goes out to the family.

The worst part is some lawyers now will try to get this monster as little a sentence as possible and he will probably claim insanity and practically get away with murder. There is no real justice!

 

[dpuck1998]

This sickens me. My heart goes out to the family.

The worst part is some lawyers now will try to get this monster as little a sentence as possible and he will probably claim insanity and practically get away with murder. There is no real justice!

There is real justice, we just have to have faith that this deed will no go unpunished.

 

[kimisabella]

This sickens me. My heart goes out to the family.

The worst part is some lawyers now will try to get this monster as little a sentence as possible and he will probably claim insanity and practically get away with murder. There is no real justice!

You are correct, he is claiming insanity and that he "hears voices" and has hallucinations. His lawyers are now sending him for a psych evaluation. As far as real justice, well, he will have to deal with that when the end of his time comes.

 

[roomthreeseventeen]

If we got to choose whether he was insane or truly evil, I would rather not think there was true evil so close to home.

Of course, very few insane people claim they are insane.

 

[becpee]

I read about this on The Dis the other day and it turned my stomach.
I am thousands of miles away and as a country we are also not immune to these predators.
Their judgement is coming.

 

[smidgy]

I apologize to those who took offense by what I posted. I definitely wasn't trying to "make myself look good". I was just trying to stick up for the parents.

the "context" is this conversation, and some posters have implied or alluded to the thought, or opinion that the parents should not have let him walk home alone.
and whether or not they are reading this particular thread, or any particular media outlet (newspaper, news show,etc.), they have enough to deal with.
that was my point. yes, I am sure they are agonizing over that decision now, in retrospect. they don't need tons of people pointing that out. no, you can't "make" someone feel something, but you can say something that, chances are probably will cause them to feel it.

my prayers are with these parents. the evil here is this sicko.

 

[BriarRosie]

Times can't have changed that much, could they? I do remember being warned about "stranger danger" when I was a kid, but I was allowed to walk the couple blocks to school. Even when I was 8 years old.

I was also allowed to take a bus with friends when I was in 6th grade. I started babysitting when I was about 12-13. 7th grade or so.

I don't think these are normal circumstances. I feel for the family and hope they don't feel guilty for their decision. Sadly, I think they must be feeling guilty, regardless.

 

[ruadisneyfan2]

This is so incredibly sad. I feel so bad for this family. It's so hard to be a parent; we often 2nd guess ourselves. Our ultimate goal is for our child to someday become an independent adult.
Sicko crimes like this happen to adults too so when do we ever stop worrying about our kids? never.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gary_M._Heidnik
I was just out of HS when this was happening.

Even if you helicopter-parent for 18 yrs, at some point your child goes out into the world and has to make decisions for him/herself. Even teens & 20-somethings make bad decisions.

 

[smidgy]

Times can't have changed that much, could they? I do remember being warned about "stranger danger" when I was a kid, but I was allowed to walk the couple blocks to school. Even when I was 8 years old.

I was also allowed to take a bus with friends when I was in 6th grade. I started babysitting when I was about 12-13. 7th grade or so.

I don't think these are normal circumstances. I feel for the family and hope they don't feel guilty for their decision. Sadly, I think they must be feeling guilty, regardless.

This is so incredibly sad. I feel so bad for this family. It's so hard to be a parent; we often 2nd guess ourselves. Our ultimate goal is for our child to someday become an independent adult.
Sicko crimes like this happen to adults too so when do we ever stop worrying about our kids? never.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gary_M._Heidnik
I was just out of HS when this was happening.

Even if you helicopter-parent for 18 yrs, at some point your child goes out into the world and has to make decisions for him/herself. Even teens & 20-somethings make bad decisions.

both great posts.

 

[disneyholic family]

of course he's crazy - you'd have to be crazy to do something like that...
that's what's stupid about the american justice system...
being crazy shouldn't matter - you still should go to jail...

 

[wishspirit]

If anything else, I hope that this serves as an opportunity for all parents to go over the "never talk to strangers" rule with their children. If you have made the decision as a parent to let your children walk by themselves or take public transportation, then I feel the parent should provide the child with a cell phone for emergencies such as this.

In my day (before I had a mobile) I always had an 'emergency' 50p in my purse so I could use a pay phone to call my parents as well as some other numbers just in case they weren't home. (the brownies taught me well!)

Smart parents you've got there.

My mom used to tell me to look for a cop or someone else in uniform. If that was not possible, she told me to go to someone working in a store or place of business.

I was told to go for someone in uniform, a mother or into a shop. I was also taught to never go near someones car if they asked me for directions- either carry on walking, or stand as far away from the car as possible. I remember getting really freaked out when a group of foreign men pulled over and kept asking me to come near the car to tell them the way to the train station. They were probably completely innocent, but I ran like heck!

 

[sayhello]

Times can't have changed that much, could they? I do remember being warned about "stranger danger" when I was a kid, but I was allowed to walk the couple blocks to school. Even when I was 8 years old.

I was also allowed to take a bus with friends when I was in 6th grade. I started babysitting when I was about 12-13. 7th grade or so.

I don't think these are normal circumstances. I feel for the family and hope they don't feel guilty for their decision. Sadly, I think they must be feeling guilty, regardless.

I'm going to preface this by saying I am not in any way blaming the parents. This was a horrible case of that poor child being in the wrong place at the wrong time. But putting some of the reports together with my knowledge of the Chassidic community in Brooklyn, and I think the problem was this child was just too trusting (a family friend described him as someone that would do anything he was told to) and grew up in an environment where it's an insulated community, and the child was not exposed to the outside world. Perhaps the child did have all the proper warnings about stranger danger, but there was just something in his emotional makeup that made him not recognize that this monster was a stranger he needed to beware of. We can all wish that he'd known to run screaming in the other direction from this maniac, but the fact is, he didn't, and he followed the man for quite some time. It's a horrible tragedy, and the parents will likely be blaming themselves whether they did everything perfectly or not. That's part of being a parent...

Sayhello