Watch­ing the hoopla sur­round­ing the young man with can­cer from Min­nesota who’s mother took him and fled seek­ing alter­nate treat­ment has cer­tainly engen­dered many a con­ver­sa­tion about the rights of par­ents, and well it should. My kids and I had just such a dis­cus­sion with the gen­eral con­sen­sus being, if you are doing some­thing that will poten­tially harm your kids, then the courts need to step in. I per­son­ally feel peo­ple hide behind their reli­gion some­times but also rec­og­nize that some peo­ple, I don’t know why, truly believe that God will take over. In our dis­cus­sions, I brought up the fact that they could also believe that the doc­tor was given a gift from God in his school­ing and train­ing and was act­ing as the hand of God instead of just sit­ting back and “let­ting God work” He WAS working…just thru some­one here on earth!! Be that as it may.….

It made me think back to a week or so ago when we were on our mini vaca­tion. We arrived at our hotel and were check­ing in when my hus­band went to see the size of the pool, as he always does. He came back to the room and told me a woman was in there and had her tod­dler, maybe a 2 year old or smaller, in the hot tub. Being the mouthy, “how can she be so stu­pid” busy­body that I am, I imme­di­ately went to the front desk to report her. Good grief…even if a sign isn’t posted…where is her com­mon sense?? I get  a faster heart beat and raised body temp in a hot tub…what could it do to a baby??? They said they would take care of it so I left.  A bit after that we were leav­ing for a walk and there were 2 police offi­cers there talk­ing to this woman (YEAH!).  We left, and when we came back, still being nosy, I asked if every­thing  was okay. The clerk, who prob­a­bly shouldn’t have but did any­way, told me that they were being evicted as they hadn’t paid their bill. Hmm.…don’t know how THAT hap­pened as we had to pay with a charge card when we came in…but anyway…I remarked that my con­cern had been for the tod­dler and that the mom should have known bet­ter.  The clerk told me they thought she had two kids as the dad had come in shortly after we left with a 4 or 5 year old, but then when they were “escorted” out, the mother was car­ry­ing a car seat with a new baby in it!!! What??? The mom is at the pool, float­ing on some­thing, talk­ing on her phone, the tod­dler is run­ning in and out of the hot tub, the dad is off some­where with the other kid and the baby is alone in the room????????????????????????????????? HELLO????? Okay…I need to breathe here.…and we won­der how child abuse hap­pens!! I have no idea where these peo­ple went when they left. I have no idea if charges were filed, but I doubt it. The hotel fol­lowed pol­icy. And yet today, I sit here and worry fills my heart.  I will never know if those kids grow to adult hood. I pray so.  Why have kids if you are going to not pro­tect them with your very life? Why have kids if you aren’t going to love them and love them and love them? Why have kids?  I don’t get it. Sigh.