To be so affected by the Southport news

[wonderingwandering99]

I can’t stop crying about this news story. I’ve recently had my first child and I don’t think it would have affected me quite so much before I became a mother. But I’ve felt sick ever since I found out yesterday.

I just can’t stop thinking about how many people’s lives will be forever ruined by this most hellish, heinous event. How will they ever be able to have normal lives? I’m so heartbroken.

It felt like a bad dream when I woke up this morning and remembered it was actually real and this has really happened. What a dark, dark day for our country.

It affects you differently when you're a mother. It just does.

I am with YOYOK on this. It’s not a competition as to who is most affected.

That is so true… wonderful comment.

I have little girl that age and I feel so angry that men keep on doing this kind of shit to women and girls.

I'm not a mother but I can't stop thinking about this either, how excited they must have been last night, choosing their outfits, going to bed with a kiss from their parents. I cried too watching the news tonight when their beautiful, innocent faces were shown. Their poor parents, their sweet little girls going out full of excitement and never coming home. Heartbreaking. Horrific.

I cried.
I'm not even a mother, but the 7 year old girl looks a lot like my niece of the same age. Then the little one has that huge gappy smile and the older one is wearing her holy communion dress which looks like the wedding dress she'll never get to wear.

It affects you differently when you're a mother. It just does.

Does this actually matter? Being a mother isn't like a badge of honour.. everyone is affected by these awful events whether they have children or not

Why? I have a 7 year old daughter and it’s got my ‘back up’ for that very reason. Every time I look at her I think of those poor little girls that animal butchered yesterday. I know she would have loved to have attended a Taylor Swift dance and bracelet making workshop and the thought of her being there makes me feel sick.

HNRTFT but seeing the pictures of those beautiful little girls ,so innocent ,unassuming and just lovely has really messed with my brain !A complete horror movie.Heartfelt condolences to their families.

Absolutely devastating. The type of camp/activity all of our little ones are going to this Summer up and down the country, dropped off safely in the knowledge they’ll be looked after and will be having lots of fun. Supposed to be exciting times with new friends and lovely memories to be made. Those parents did what we have all done and are doing, my heart breaks for them.

Agree OP. I burst into tears on my train home and felt like a right idiot.

Please, never feel like an idiot to have a legitimate reaction to the horror of what happened. We are all feeling it.

I've cried too. It's heartbreaking. My daughters and I love TS, we went to a concert. So many kids there just like these. It's unbearable.

As a mum of over 27 years, respectfully, you need to temper your reactions. This is not your tragedy, fortunately for you. I was pregnant with my firstborn when Dunblane happened.

In all the years since my eldest was born, there have been many, many tragedies involving children. I was only just pregnant with my second when the Omagh bomb happened, killing 29 people, including a mother pregnant with twins. An inquest has just opened.

I grew up in NI during the Troubles and tragedy was never far away. TG those dark days are no more. I was mostly unscathed but I was in a uni tutorial when a lecturer was shot dead in the street outside. A family member had his primary aged child in his work van when he was made to drive a live bomb to a phone exchange.

@RegimentalSturgeon my children are all adults, but they will always be my babies! And Jamie Bulger has always been known by his nickname in the press.

@whenemmafallsinlove my daughters also love TS and went to see her Eras tour twice. I am sure they would have loved a workshop like this when they were little.

No that's normal. I have two daughters too, one the same age and name as one of the girls who died. It really hurts because you can't help but imagine... We are not too far away either. A young girl was tragically murdered in a park near where we live and we haven't been there since because it doesn't feel right. And when a little girl was killed a few years ago she shared the same name as my eldest and my boss said it really affected him because of my little girl having the same name and appearance and told me to give her a big hug when I got home. I'm not saying non parents aren't horrified or saddened, but you know how your own child would react in that situation which breaks your heart. I cried when I saw the news yesterday. Heck, my partner the grizzly bearded rocker was almost in tears over it. There aren't any words really. Just awful.

It affects you differently, not the plural ‘you’.

My empathy has been unchanged by parenthood. The senseless murder of children was heartbreaking for them and those who loved them - both pre children and post children.
If I said “as a mother, I am sadder”, I am making it about me and my feelings.

It is just horrific

wee souls. I can’t stop thinking about their families.

It’s hard to contemplate, I have a six year old girl and it’s been on my mind, and made me teary a few times. So horrific

It's so hard isn't it...
Watching footage from Gaza about so many sweet innocent children being killed, having their mums and dads and siblings murdered... How can anyone not be affected by children being murdered (Southport or Gaza or Ukraine or anywhere else).

My parents live in Southport, and I find it hard to comprehend that something so awful could happen there, as I know it as such a safe, peaceful place. The riots too are shocking, to think that people from outside the area would come and disrupt a grieving community and that the emergency services who helped are now bring attacked again is terrible.
My kids are going to Southport in a couple of days to stay with their grandparents and I feel like stopping them going, which I know is irrational.

It has really affected me too, I have children of that age and think of the room full of excited little ones just excited to dance and start their holidays. Can't even begin to imagine the pain the families are going through, it is a pure nightmare 💔

I was one of them.

Only because, my feelings on it don't focus on me crying about it and how I'm affected by it but how the parents of the girls, those who got injured trying to save them, the paramedics, and the other survivors are affected by it. I consider how I feel and am Instinctively more concerned about the fact it will be a million times worse for them.

It's not about not having feelings about it, it's normal, but for me it's more concern for those directly involved and what they are going through rather than how it's affecting me, which frankly pales into insignificance. I bet most people feel like this really though so the yabu is more of a technical yabu.

It’s horrifying. My 10yo was asking me why someone would do that, and I had no answers.

I cannot believe the disrespect the rioters have shown. What are they thinking (or not even bothering to think at all).

Heartbreaking. An act of evil.

I think anyone with similar age DC, especially at holiday clubs, will stop and think that could happen to anyone. Horrific. Those poor babies, their distraught families. The emergency services must be traumatised too.

I also can’t remove this from my mind, and keep on randomly bursting into tears.

I made the decision to not watch the news at the moment, as it’s too much for me to cope with, but have still found myself reading the BBC News since this atrocity happened, as I have the app and I’m so used to regularly checking it. I opened the app yesterday and completely broke down, as they had added the photos of the beautiful, innocent little girls who were savagely murdered. I just keep on seeing their faces now - can’t get them out of my mind.

My Daughters who belong to the same age category the Taylor Swift dance event was for were innocently, and thoroughly enjoying themselves yesterday in the early evening - taking it in turns to choose which Taylor Swift songs to put on their tablet and singing and dancing, and doing gymnastics moves. They have no knowledge of the attacks - I am trying desperately to shield them from this news. They adore Taylor Swift, and this type of thing is a regular occurrence in our house but I found it so emotional yesterday, as I could do nothing but empathise with the families and friends of the little victims, and was imagining the excitement of the victims in preparation of the event, and when they were there - before those horrific moments.