To feel sick at the almost constant news stories about children dying at the hands of their parents or care givers

[OrangeClub]

I wish I hadn't read the paper today. A three year old boy was beaten to death by the 22 year old boyfriend of his mother. I only saw the headline and I could not read anymore. I feel like crying. I am a single mother and I can only imagine how the child's mother feels, having introduced this monster into their lives. I don't want to imagine the fear of this poor child and it makes me feel physically sick.

Is is me or does there seem to be more and more of these types of stories, fathers/mothers killing their children to get their own back on their spouse, children being beaten and/or killed by people who are supposed to love them. I don't know if it has always been like this or whether violence in our society towards children is becoming more and more common.

AIBU to wonder what the hell is going on?

Awful as ANY incidences are, there are probably far LESS than there ever were. Its just that the media reports them. Imagine 100 or so years ago, when children were expendable, and were sold, sent down pits, up chimneys or into mills. Children are generally treated far better than they ever were, nowadays.

The Media is whats going on.

YANBU. I stop reading also. I cannot, never have, never will not do I want to understand what goes through the mind of someone who hurts a child. I actually cant wrap my head around it. World is full of some very evil people. All we can do is ensure our own little ones are loved and protected as best we can.

I cannot read past the headline. There was the case of the 4 year old girl stabbed to death by her Mother. Holly and Phillip were intervieeing her heartbroken DF. First time I have given a story like that my attention. The interview was very sad. The Mother drank anti freeze and is now in prison in a wheelchair. Mother claimed she did it because of financial worries and feared the little girl would grow up without money Sigh.

What saggy said.

The 'constant news stories' are because every journalist can now just type and click and the story is posted on the Internet.

Years ago we would wait for a daily national paper, a local weekly paper or for someone to tell us what was going on. We'd miss most of the really grim stuff. Now we can read about global misery every time we click, or watch tv.

It has always happened, it is just that we are much more aware of it now. That in itself is not a bad thing. People can try to do something about it, it is not generally dismissed as being a fact of life.

I'd prefer to be informed rather than ignorant, but I can also choose not to always read the stuff that I find particularly upsetting too.

I agree that the 24 hour media that we have now means that these stories are reported more often. I just cannot for the life of me understand how anyone could kill their own children in cold blood. Or kill someone else's children because the relationship has ended and the person wants to get their own back. It seems that some people view their children as extensions of themselves and not people in their own right.

On the radio I keep hearing of the father who crushed his 8 week old daughters skull after secretly drinking whiskey. He told family and friends he accidently fell on her :(

There aren't more. This stuff has always happened, but not only do we now have laws against it (there's some heartbreaking stories of attempts to prosecute before we had child cruelty laws) but we have the internet. Stuff that might only have been known about within a small community in years gone by is now reported all over the country within 24 hours.

I think it's particularly conspicuous at the moment, because it is happening in a summer when there have been so many sad reports of accidental deaths of children too, and high profile murders too. It becomes a sort of self-reinforcing perception.

There is a map which shows the trenches here LaQueen.

Daily Mail link

Oops - wrong thread

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