*sigh*
Okay. Let's say, hypothetically, that while watering your yard flowers, you notice the 18 month old baby who lives on the next block moseying down the alley toward your street. Say when you run from your yard to the other end of the alley to catch him, you don't see him because he has ducked through an opening in the fence and into another yard. Say also that when you get to him and say, "Where ya goin' kiddo?" he grins really big and giggles... and then you notice that he isn't wearing shoes. Or pants. Or a diaper. Just a shirt. And he really needs a soapy bath, but he sure does grin at you as you carry him all the way back down the alley and down to his house. By the way, say you also pass the baby's older sister who is riding her tricycle in the street out of sight from her house. Then say that you hand the baby to the mock-surprised father on the porch who says to the baby, "That's it, you're going inside," and carries him inside, leaves him inside unsupervised, then goes back to the porch.
Now, having previously witnessed that the parents are regularly drunk and use marajuana, scream at each other and the kids, and routinely let the kids wander under-clothed and unsupervised out of sight of the house, what would you do?
Hypothetically, of course.
posted by laura g @ Thursday, July 24, 2008
3 Comments:
laura...this reminds me of my little class at my school nestled in a neighborhood thick with the sadness your talking about. I get to kiss their little faces everyday and pray it makes a difference. We are helpless in so many ways but I might suggest, if its safe, you wander by occasionally because you made a friend today. Bless your heart for seeing them, I mean, really seeing them.
This breaks my heart. What would I do? Be Jesus to them. If you see them playing in the street and you have the time, play with them. You will know for those few moments that they have been loved. After a little while, quietly walk them back home - maybe with a juicebox or snack in hand.
There is a part of me that wants to say it should be reported to child services, but somehow I doubt that it would have the desired results. Issues of child abuse and neglect are so pervasive and sometimes an investigation aggravates the problem without offering a solution.
If I can manage it with my job, I'd like to volunteer as a child advocate at some point, with the hope that I might be part of a solution for at least one child. I think you would be really good at that. Here's the link if you want to look into it. http://www.tncasa.org/
we had a similar situation in our neighborhood with a family of about eight kids, one of which had downs syndrome and was about three. same deal - always seemed unkept and wandering in and out of odd places in the neighborhood. the strangest thing i personally saw (everyone seemed to have their own greatest hit involving this family) was while jogging about four blocks from the childs house, the child passed me up riding a weimaraner down the middle of the street. it was a very david lynch sort of moment for me. pretty much, we (the neighborhood) tried to help out here and there with the family, but ultimately social services had to step in. good luck with your situation.
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