Your child is scared, trust me on this, really truly frightened. They’re out of their mind frightened and don’t want you to know. In fact, some of you are the fuel that ignites their angst.
It started Tuesday evening when I read this tweet:
Much of this disturbed me, but it hit me.. Kids today have to be scared to death everyday, every night all the time.
So I spoke on it Wednesday for 20 minutes at the start of my show. Who’s helping kids get through this?
Who’s reassuring kids that they are safe?
A 5-year-old is executed and the main issue is hypocrites in the media? A child gets murdered in front of his sister. I don’t give a rats about the media, my thought was how ’bout we protect kids.
Think for a second about children’s lives the past 6 months…
- No school
- No contact with friends
- Everyone wearing a mask
- Anger everywhere..turn on the news..hate…read social media, hate…parents and their friends angry whether it’s politics, the virus, job status, just hate in every direction.
Where do kids turn, who do they look to? Parents. Too many parents use mental munchausen by proxy. Basically munchausen is a parent hurting a child then acting as healer and protector.
Too many parents are exposing their kids to all the hate, violence, and despair available in today’s world.
If you’re doing it, STOP!! Your child isn’t “your little buddy” in these times. He/She is your child!! Protect them from the hate, the angst, the despair. They’ll find it in due time!! Let them be kids!!
How do I know? What makes me an expert? Simple, I was a scared kid!! Scared to death every night, totally frightened.
My parents were great!! They hid things from me but I saw, I looked and I saw.
When I was in grade school our house got FIRE BOMBED.. a molotov cocktail to our garage, setting it ablaze. Don’t know what a Molotov cocktail is? Here ya go.
My brother and I were at Taylor University Basketball camp for the week when it happened.
My parents fixed the fire-damaged garage and never told us about it. BUT, I read the week’s worth of The Gary Post Tribune cover to cover and saw an article about arson at 1620 W 54th Ave.. my house. I asked, they told the truth, I was scared!!
Subsequent to that, our garage was robbed twice, a rock was fired at my head by a big, fat, much older bully named Equihua.
A weird drug gang in my neighborhood included a guy named Jeffery Beering. Beering murdered a little girl in the lot behind my house by stabbing her 33 times with a screw driver.
Everyone knew Beering as he walked around the block all the time in jeans no shirt and with a guitar. I was the neighborhood paperboy and every night I was scared.
My neighborhood was great, but I read the newspaper…I knew..your kid knows, trust me. Hell, we didn’t have social media, didn’t have a 24-hour cycle but I KNEW. Your kid KNOWS.
I KNEW:
- Where the Post Tribune printed robberies in the area..anything south of 35th street in Gary scared me..35th was where So Gleason Golf Course our Augusta was located
- Where Garland Jeffers lived. Jeffers was the leader of the notorious Gary street gang ‘The Family’..his house was across the street from the baseball practice fields at Lew Wallace HS where we practiced Little League ..I wasn’t shagging foul balls that went on his lawn.
So I spoke on my show Wednesday ..who’s helping kids? Let’s get people to understand the pain and fear kids are living with and let’s help them!!
Who’s helping kids?
- Riley Children’s Hospital Ways To Give | Riley Children’s Health .
- Very proudly my wife Leigh and I are helping kids..
- How great is Dick Vitale Gala if you want to help.
- The great Peyton Manning Children’s Hospital at St. Vincent Indianapolis
- My man @matteoruns on Twitter…this kid raised $75,000 for others before he turned 10
- How ’bout my friend Tatum Parker Project? I met her at DickieV’s Gala and have attended her “White Party” in support of pediatric cancer
- Longtime college basketball coach Houston Fancher heard my podcast from Wednesday and let me know about Tanner’s Totes, an organization started by Clemson hoops great Tanner Smith that distributes gifts to children dealing with cancer nationwide
If you or an organization you know is helping kids let me know about it. My email is dan@1070thefan.com. I’ll spread the word.
It’s time we start protecting, understanding, and healing our children. They are scared, they are in distress. You don’t have to join an organization just some reassurance, some civility when discussing today’s world.
Let kids be kids.
I don’t have all the answers but I feel like an expert in this one..please give it a try.
