Avoiding The News

These past few days I've been doing something that I very rarely do- watching the news.  Now I come from a family that watched the news religiously.  You best believe that when 5 o'clock rolled around whatever tv show or movie were watching got turned off in favor in of watching the local news followed by Inside Edition then followed by the CBS Evening News show.  This was our routine Monday through Friday week after week.

As child watching the news didn't bother me as much because while there was some bad or negative stuff for the most part the 90s was a happy time.  There wasn't quite as much foolishness going down.  But as we crept closer to and entered the 2000s, it seems like our country as a whole just started to decline.  People now days are no longer concerned with treating each other with respect or showing kindness.

So gradually I stopped watching the news in high school.  And in college I stopped completely.  I recently started back to keep track of all the Hurricane Sandy news and then somehow got sucked into watching our local news.  Well, I was watching the news last night and Moo was still up watching with me.  And there was just one negative story after the other.

After a few minutes, the reporter started talking about a recent string of robberies where residents are actually getting robbed in broad daylight in their driveways by teens and young adults armed with baseball bats and guns.  I didn't think that Moo was really listening because she had some toys she was tinkering with.   But then she asked me "Mommy why are the bad people doing that to them?"  I wasn't sure what to say.  I mean how do you explain to an almost four year old the wickedness and evil that now seems to fuel and consume our communities?

After that, I ended up changing the channel because honestly now that I know she understands what's being reported, I don't want her exposed to such negativity.  She's a kid and needs to be worried about making friends, playing with dolls and enjoying her cartoons.  Sometimes exposing kids to adult issues too soon makes them grow up before their time.  They become worry warts way before they need to be. Trust me, I know.

Secondly, after watching one bad story after the other with nothing positive to balance it all out, I was starting to get depressed.  Therefore, needless to say I'll be going back to my usual routine of avoiding the news.  I'd rather catch a 140 character news tweet.  At the end of the day, I truly believe that if news channels balanced out the negative stuff they reported with positive news stories from the community people would strive to do better.  It's just a fact that when you have more positive energy and positive thoughts being stimulated you tend to be a more positive person.  And positive people do positive things.

Do you watch the news?  Are your kids allowed to watch the news too?

Random Ramblings: Irresponsible Screwing

I know it's late, but I've been pretty busy today.  I don't know if I would say that I was very productive though. LOL.  Anyways, I was going to write a post earlier in the afternoon when I got home, but I was too upset and needed to calm down.  When I'm upset about something serious I can be very cut throat with my words.

So, I was riding with my mommy who informed me that my aunt in law needed some clothes for a little girl about my niece's size.  In my mind I 'm trying to figure out why she would need them because her kids are grown.  My mom informs me that DSS had to arrange an emergency foster care move for three kids-one girl and two boys.  These kids are all under the age of nine and had to snatched from the comforts of their home due a danger to their livelihood.  And I've heard about kids in foster care and what not.

But for the life of me, I couldn't understand why the more I thought about those kids being uprooted from their home the more upset and frustrated I became.  I mean I was livid by the time I had reached my niece's school to pick her up.  Sitting in the car riders' lane all I could think of was how I would love to get a hold of those kids' parents and choke the shit out of them. Seriously, that is the exact thought that ran through my mind.

My opinion is this: when you screw irresponsibly chances are you might get pregnant or worse an STD.  So, why do some many women and men play Russian Roulette when it comes to sex?  I mean seriously, is sex that important or are you that desperate that you can't remember to use protection or get on birth control. I'm all for everybody getting their rocks off or whatever you want to call it. I'm a single mom, so I've had some great sex in my twenty something years old on this Earth.

However, what I wouldn't do was put myself in the position of becoming a parent when I know full well that I have not intentions of living up to the duties that come along with it.  When I started having unprotected sex with my daughter's father, I knew I was bound to get pregnant sooner or later. But I had also made up in my mind that I was ready to assume the duties of caring for and molding a life if and when it happened. I just can't for the life of me understand why these kids' have to be put through such nonsense.

My advice to all the women and men out there sleeping around with people they have no intentions of being with exclusively or even seeing them after your ten minutes of fun is to get snipped!!!  Yes, I wrote it. Get snipped.  I'm not going to put the blame on the women. It takes two to roll in the hay.

Ladies get your tubes tied or have the ovaries completely removed. Men get that vasectomy.  That way you can still sleep around as much as possible but you won't be hurting innocent children who didn't ask to be here.  My heart goes out to those kids for what they have to go through.  The emotional scars that they will carry throughout their lives is way more painful than the abuse and neglect they suffered.

Their whole outlooks on life and relationships and parenting and love has been tainted.  And for what?  Because their mom feels like she got the bad end of the stick.  It's just not fair.  America we have to change.  We can't keep raising a generation of emotionally damaged kids and expect to improve violence in our homes, schools and neighborhoods. These kids are crying out, but I feel like nobody is hearing them.