Strollerderby : sad

Dad Dies 15 Hours After Daughter's Birth

Amy Kuras — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 17:29:00 GMT

This is one of those stories that made me want to grab my family and hug them hard. Drew Pearson, who was 27 years old and had just welcomed his baby daughter the day before, was killed in a car accident while running errands the morning after his daughter was born.

Most of us remember that first night in the hospital with your new baby. You are shellshocked with the new responsibility you have just taken on, not entirely sure what to do with this little person, and unable to stop staring at this beautiful little being you have created. One thing you’re likely not doing, is sleeping.

A sleep-deprived Pearson’s car slammed into the back of a slow-moving semi. His wife discovered something was wrong when she called his cell phone with an update from the morning pediatrician visit and finally got an answer from a staffer at another hospital. Finally the hospital social worker where she was came in to tell her her husband was dead. They had been married two years.

Before he left the hospital that morning, the new family got a few pictures of Pearson with his daughter. One of them is now blown up over the little girl’s crib, and his wife, Emily, says her daughter seems very drawn to them.

Family and friends held a fundraiser for Pearson’s wife and daughter. He was an instructor in the PGA golf management program at Florida Gulf Coast University and managed a nearby golf course. That’s why I am writing about this – not to bum everybody out, but to let people know. I know there are plenty of more tragic things in this world, but I think everyone who is a parent would feel their hearts torn out by this story.

6-Year-Old Boy has 176 I.Q., Bums out Entire Adult Population

Cole Gamble — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 17:00:00 GMT

Yeah, so this kid has a 176 I.Q. so what! Can he buy cigarettes and gin?? Ha!

(Author goes on 72-hour bender)

Alright, I’m back. Sorry, had to get that out of my system. Gargled a few dozen times with Listerine, but still can’t get that New Car scent out of my mouth (whomever took advantage of my inebriated state and challenged me to eat 15 car air fresheners, you’ll get your comeuppance).

Where was I? Oh that’s right, super depressed. I mean, this 6-year-old kid has an I.Q. higher than Einstein’s. Name any date back to 2000 and he’ll tell you the day of the week. I, on the other hand, got chicken grease on my tax forms. At age 6, this kid can recite every U.S. president in the order in which they served. At age 6 I ate paste.

Why do I keep finding this every time I open my computer in the morning, more evidence of people and things far more awesome than I? That’s it, Internet, I now officially deem you “The Depression Box.”

And what does little Pranav want to be when he grows up? An astronaut. Good. Go ahead and blast off, Pranav. Go up there and lord your hyper intelligence on interstellar creatures for awhile. I’m going back to eating paste. Or maybe I’ll open my depression box and watch some Hulu.

photo: The Enquirer

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Teaching Kids the Right and Wrong Way to Cry

Hannah Tennant-Moore — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 19:30:00 GMT

Like many people my age, I grew up listening to Rosey Grier tell me it was all right to cry. “Crying gets the sad out of you. It’s all right to cry. It might make you feel better,” the football star crooned into my mother’s living room countless times.

Well, as much as I still love Free to Be...You and Me, new research suggests that crying might not actually make you feel better. Common wisdom has long held that “having a good cry” provides a soothing sense of release. But now psychologists are arguing that this belief is, in part, a self-fulfilling prophecy: because people believe crying is good for them, they tend to report positive effects from emotional breakdowns. In fact, as a review paper in Current Directions in Psychological Science argues, crying may be detrimental for some people, leading to more confusion and sadness. Turns out, there’s a "right" way and a "wrong" to cry.

Not surprisingly, the ability to cry in the right or wrong way as an adult has much to do with—you guessed it—how you were raised. (This would be a good time to remind yourself of Jon Stewart’s parenting words of wisdom: “it’s a chance to ruin somebody from scratch.”)

Some therapists believe that children whose parents react attentively and lovingly to their crying find tearful episodes more cathartic later in life. Kids whose tears are scolded or ignored are less likely to find crying soothing as adults; instead of seeking comfort or outside assistance in regulating emotions, they tend to cry as a protest to others. Since “Fix it!” is an impossible request when it comes to grief, this kind of crying only leaves people feeling more bereft.

So, Rosey Grier, looks like you were on to something after all….

Photo: current.com

Jon Stewart on Dashing His Children's Hopes

"I Ate Little Black Girls for Two Years"

Cole Gamble — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 15:00:00 GMT

Listeners tuned into a British radio talk show got a pretty damn shocking surprise when a caller informed the host she had eaten “little black girls” for two years. Apparently, she didn’t know she was doing it at the time, but she did declare them "delicious."

Keep reading to hear the actual phone conversation.

(WARNING: Content is not only horrifying but maybe racist.)

Click Here to listen:

Gotta love how flip the host reacted. “Well, you win the weirdest thing eaten contest.” Does that mean he’s gonna send her a pair of tickets to Supertramp? Maybe he didn’t buy her story. Or maybe that kind of thing happens all the time in England.

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Babysitter Puts Baby in a Running Dryer so She Could Watch TV

Cole Gamble — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 17:30:00 GMT

Arielle Smith, 19, has been charged with murder in Louisiana for placing a 5-month-old child in a dryer and turning it on.

This is one of the stories that make it hard to breathe.

Alleged, the teen placed the baby Andre Jenkins in the dryer and locked up Andre’s 18-month-old brother and one-year-old sister in order to watch television without interruption. Smith had removed the clothing from the dryer before placing Andre in and after removing the unresponsive baby she placed the clothes back inside. Then Smith called her boyfriend and the child’s mother, suggesting the death was not intentional.

That is about all of the story I can stomach writing.

After a long time without any kind of babysitter, my wife and I lucked out and were able to get a woman that worked at our kids’ pre-school. We completely trust her competence and motives. I don’t think even a good interview and references can ensure parents don’t end up with an Arielle Smith. All I can say is you can only do your best to perhaps go through an accredited nanny/babysitter service.

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Conjoined Twin Surgery: One Lives, One Dies

Brett Singer — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 16:30:00 GMT

An operation to separate the one-week-old conjoined twins, named Hope and Faith, resulted in the Hope's death. Faith is still alive, with a "50-50 chance of survival," according to published reports.

The twins were born last week to Laura Williams. At 18, she is said to be the youngest woman ever to give birth to conjoined twins in Britain.

Listen to this: "The sisters were joined from the breastbone to the top of the navel. They shared their blood circulation but had their own organs, though they were joined at the liver and intestines." Can you imagine? I can, but not easily.

The doctors who performed the separation procedure wanted to wait but "the twins' health was deteriorating," which led to the emergency surgery.

So sad. I mean, what can you say? At least one of them survived? That's good news, right? Somehow it doesn't offset the sadness of the other half of the story. The fact that the twins' names are Hope and Faith got to me even more.

Source: AFP via Google

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Two women found guilty of illegal midwifery

Brett Singer — Sat, 06 Sep 2008 21:00:00 GMT

This is a serious issue, but I have to say that the term "illegal midwifery" sounds like something out of a bad Shakespeare parody.

Now that I've gotten that out of the way, here's the story:

"Tonya McGlade was found guilty of Attempting Midwifery Without a License. Linda McGlade was found guilty of Principal to Practice Midwifery Without a License.

"Prosecutors say the women helped Linda McGlade's other daughter-in-law deliver her baby boy. She died of internal bleeding two days after giving birth back in 2004."

In other words, they attempted to deliver a baby without having a license to do so. Sadly, the mother died; the baby survived. This site has a lot more detail if you're interested (fair warning: it's very sad).

What I'm wondering is, just how prevalent is this practice? If someone decides to give birth at home without a trained person present (midwife, doctor, nurse, whatever) and nothing goes wrong, would they be prosecuted as well? Judging by what I've seen on Babble, home births are far more common than I realized. If I had to guess, I would say that a large percentage of these births are against the law. And something else: isn't the problem that the patient died and received poor treatment, rather than the midwife's lack of license? I mean, you can get a midwife license online. (CORRECTION: according to a commenter, that web site only offers the coursework; to get licensed you have to complete your training under supervision.)

Image/source: mysuncoast.com

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In Happier News, Police Shoot Man ...

Mike Adamick (Cry It Out!) — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 17:01:00 GMT

... Who beat baby to death on the side of the road.

This is the most bizarre, most unnerving story I've come across in a long time and was hesitant to share it because it's so gut-wrenchingly awful. But imagine driving down a highway late at night and seeing a man pull over, grab a baby out of his car and start beating it to death.

That's pretty much exactly what happened over the weekend in Turlock, a rural Central Valley town in the middle of California.

Said one police officer in the story, "As people tried to intervene, to tackle him, he just went back to what he was doing. Anything and everything he could do to the baby, that's what he was doing."

A police helicopter landed nearby and officers shot the 27-year-old man, who died on the scene. The baby, whose age was anywhere from 1 to 2 years, later died at the hospital. Police said about a dozen people witnessed the beating in progress and two physically stepped in to stop it. I wonder, it's late at night, a rural highway, an obviously fucked up guy ... what would you do?

Aid workers may be abusing children

Brett Singer — Tue, 27 May 2008 15:35:00 GMT

I hope this story isn't true. It sounds like it is, but I really hope that it's not.

The organization Save The Children has issued a report called "No One To Turn To." The report says that aid workers overseas are sexually abusing children, some as young as 6 years old.

Here's a quote from a 15-year-old Haitian girl: "My friends and I were walking by the National Palace one evening when we encountered a couple of humanitarian men. The men called us over and showed us their penises. They offered us 100 Haitian gourdes ($2.80) and some chocolate if we would suck them. I said, 'No,' but some of the girls did it and got the money."

Where do they find the aid workers? Is it some kind of outpatient program?

Now, the organization does say that, "the vast majority of aid workers were not involved in any form of abuse or exploitation." But even one instance of this would be alarming. A pattern of abuse is… what can I say, it sucks.

Now that I've digested the story, I don't think my wish that it's not true is going to bear out. Damn.

image: Save The Children