A question to ponder...
Several of us (talking about the few who read this blog) have children, and this morning as I was driving to work (an hour commute), listening to NPR (as usual), which was a lovely bastion of bad news (also as usual), I was pondering how a parent deals with a child who has gone wrong.Seriously wrong.
I'm talking about Jeffrey Dahmer wrong here.
I mean, you love this child, more than anything, you would lie down in front of a train if it meant they would be happy and whole. But what do you do if they grow up to be a monster? Do you simply give up, pretend they no longer exist? Can you? Do you still love them the way you did before? Can you?
And what about a lesser monster? What if your beautiful little girl grows up and marries a racist nutbag, and she goes along with it? How would you deal?
Now, I'm certainly not talking about from experience, but I'm thinking about those Duke University lacrosse players (the catalyst for this). What did Ryan McFadyen's mother do when she read that disgusting email? And what if it turns out they did rape that woman? The parents, of course, are completely behind them right now- but will that stay true? I mean, if I was McFayden's mom I would already be rethinking my whole life- what did I do that made him that way? And it could have been NOTHING she or her husband did. People are just sometimes... wrong. That's all. But you would think it, I'm sure. Go over every memory you have of your child to see if you could find where he/she might have started to become the person they have become. The monster they have become.
Just thinking...
2 comment(s):
Um, yeah, that question does wander through my mind every so often... pretty much whenever I hear of some atrocity committed by a middle-class white boy, since that's what my kids are. I always wonder what his mother must be feeling, and I always wonder which would be worse: for your child to fall victim to a monster, or for your child to be the monster?
I hope we never have to find out.
By alala, at 4:21 PM
Maddy is going to be 50% raised by Michael. 'nough said.
By waltzingmathilda, at 8:57 PM
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