Some parents need a slap!

I’m not a perfect parent and I make mistakes. I’ve been known to say and do the wrong things sometimes and I also have times when I get annoyed and frustrated. Children can be just as frustrating as they can be adorable.

We all have times when we struggle, because parenting is one massive learning curve and we're all learning about life right alongside our children.

Yesterday there was a story in the news about a mother in Adelaide. Her five year old little boy woke up with a cough and a runny nose and she gave him a dose of methadone in his cordial bottle to help him feel better. He will never feel better because he died.

Methadone (also known as Symoron, Dolophine, Amidone, Methadose, Physeptone, Heptadon, Phy and many other names) is a synthetic opioid used medically as an analgesic and maintenance anti-addictive for use in patients with opioid dependency.

This breaks my heart when I read things like this. Children are so innocent and trusting and they rely on us to protect them and keep them safe. What parent in their right mind would think that this is acceptable? Okay I answered my own question there, because no parent in their right mind would do this sort of thing.

I understand that all of us face challenges in our lives and we all have our own demons and addictions and vices. It’s a sad fact of life. What dismays me most is that Family Support Services knew of this family and had been contacted regarding the conditions in the home, yet nothing was done and an innocent life was lost.

Are we as a community letting our children down? We hear so often in the news of children who are killed and then an avalanche of neighbours or family members come forward to say they had concerns, or they’d made reports etc etc.

The thing is its too damn late once an innocent life is extinguished to say that you thought something wasn’t right or that you had concerns.

I posted this week about people with a fighting spirit and said ‘The true fighters are the ones who fight for something worth fighting for’. To me, a child’s life is worth fighting for. Bugger the ‘not getting involved if it doesn’t concern you’ premise. If a child’s life is in jeopardy then ‘get involved’ because unfortunately there are some parents who do need a good swift slap around the head.

Cheers, Fi

That's what it takes to be a hero, a little gem of innocence inside you that makes you want to believe that there still exists a right and wrong, that decency will somehow triumph in the end ~ Lise Hand