Robb Elementary/Grief/Parenting/Mental Health TW on entire thread

sunshine2417

Hi friends. The news out of TX has left me absolutely broken-hearted beyond belief tonight for those parents, siblings, families, etc.

This is a place to come together as moms, pregnant people, and people going through a heightened emotional time to respond to an absolute tragedy in a safe community and to grieve together and support/check in on each other.

I’ve spent most of the day having 30 second intermittent outbursts of crying. Then my son had his hand slammed in a drawer and started crying and I couldn’t hold anything in anymore. I’ve been crying for nearly 4 hours now for these parents, these babies, the families, the siblings, those who know, those who are waiting, those responding to the tragedy at the school, in the hospital, etc.… I can’t even fathom this pain right now. I’ve just been hugging my kids and sobbing. So many mamas whose kids are not home in their beds tonight. It feels so hard and heavy to be having a third child now and putting even more vulnerability on our hearts to just run out into the world and be subjected to all sorts of evil. It feels so so so heavy. I’m so heartbroken and wish I had any strength to try to hold up these parents right now.

Growing up I lived in Littleton, just a few short miles from Columbine High School. I still remember nearly every moment of that week so vividly and it weighs heavy on me. The fact that we are here, well over 20 years later, still having such atrocities occur is just so… horrific. 

beach2mtns2desert

I agree. This news has been both heart wrenching and terrifying. I can’t even imagine what these families impacted are going through. My heart hurts for them. And I feel so helpless as I know nothing can mend their broken hearts right now. 

I feel so blessed to have my little girl growing inside me and knowing I am doing everything I can to keep her safe. However it frightens me to know that she will be growing up in a world where not only has this happened but the frequency it is happening is unjustifiable. I don’t want to get into politics but I feel so frustrated and angry that nothing is being done about these shootings. Maybe it is my role as a social worker in child welfare but I can’t stress enough the need for both preventative and routine mental health services. Im not saying I have the answers but I do feel that improvements to our access to mental health services would be a good start. Praying for the innocent lives lost, praying for all of the grieving people impacted by this horrific incident, and praying for a safer future for our children. 

ashnicell

I have had to really distance myself from the news on this school shooting for my mental health. I'm off of one of my anxiety medications for this pregnancy and those poor children are about DS's age. I don't want to risk spiraling. I can't even begin to imagine the pain those families are feeling and my heart breaks for them. These are the situations I fear as a parent.

Gingermom15

It makes me so sick that these things keep happening in supposedly the “greatest country”. No country is great unless they truly give a rats ass about the safety of the babies after they are born. It’s been proven time and time again the safety of our children is not a goal here - it makes me sickened and ashamed to be raising my family in this country. My heart is shattered for those babies who went through that terror and for their families left to try to make sense of this. Like insult to injury we all know this will happen again. If I could I would pack up my kids and be on a flight to Denmark tomorrow, but since that just isn’t feasible I have to keep sending them to school and hope they make it home. 

Don’t know if this was made for soap boxes but I do feel a little better with that off my chest. 

dumbledoredies

I'm sickened and disgusted that this continues to happen again and again and as adults in this country we continue to do nothing to protect our innocent babies. Our government hems and haws over the stupidest sh!t. Wastes time arguing about everything. We throw billions of dollars around at random crap like it's nothing and yet we can't executive order the sh!t l out of this issue and MAKE SCHOOLS SAFE.

It should be our number one priority right now. Throw all of our resources at protecting our schools and then focus on the mental health in this country and figure out what has happened to the moral compass. I want to live in a society where people care about others and want to help others. The internet is a great resource but I truly believe it is the root of all of our issues. People get sucked into these radical viewpoints and then act on them. So what do we do? 

I could go on and on but I don't want to go on a political rant. We are living in a very scary world/country right now. And we are headed in the wrong direction.

fantasyflyte

It boggles my mind that the solution to violence and weapons is always "let's throw even MORE weapons at the problem!" This is literally the only country in the world where this happens, CLEARLY we're not doing it right, but money and posturing is more important than actual lives. And apparently catering to a small loud percentage is more important that actually representing the will of the people you're supposed to be representing. I have to stop reading stuff about it after 5 minutes or less every time because I just get SO ANGRY and I don't want to be angry.

Gingermom15

@fantasyflyte it’s infuriating when I see people saying to just arm the teachers or have veterans stationed in schools. No educator needs that weight on their shoulders. Armed veterans shouldn’t be necessary, and aren’t the answer either. Who thinks it’s a great idea to put someone who likely has ptsd in a building full of noisy and busy kids? Add someone with a weapon in addition - who’s to say how they will react (panic, freezing). They don’t need to go through that either. “Good guys with guns” aren’t fixing anything. More weapons clearly isn’t fixing anything. 

sunshine2417

After Sandy Hook when I was teaching and they started talking about arming teachers with guns I was legit terrified that it would come to fruition. I now truly don’t believe it would or could happen but, I’ve been wrong about many things before.

 On a personal level, aside from any political views about guns, I just don’t personally trust myself to
1. Have one
2. Use it correctly in a time of panic
3. Not have anxiety 24/7 about it existing in my classroom
4. Keep it safely locked up in an organized place 
5. Not fear my students/the wrong hands acquiring it at any given time

I mean, I’m a person who will turn my straightener off and recheck it 3 times and still contemplate on my drive if I turned it off and immediately imagine my house burning down. I can’t find my car keys that are 95% of the time in the same place. 

And not to speak bad about people put in a very distressing situation because I can’t even imagine, but the reports coming out of Uvalde about the police timing, lack of action going in the building, and 1,000 mess ups along the way are just fuel to the fire for why teachers who never in their dreams took on this profession to be part of law enforcement should ever be armed in a classroom and have to take on that additional responsibility… 

ponyoisfun

I have nothing important to say that has not already been said by you all.  

Being a teacher is so hard and on top of it we have to worry about all of this.  We had a student make threats at our school this year and the parent told us (after the kid was expelled) that they didn't understand why we were making such a big deal about it.