Deep thoughts

This will be quite deep.  Today, a child in Ohio has been arrested for the killing of her 2 month old baby sister.  She was only 11 years old.  While her mother slept in her room, the pretty little girl unmercifully bludgeoned and beat the 2 month old to death.  Now nobody can understand why it is that she did this.  But there is little doubt that this mother grieves over the loss of two  of her children.

I remember when I was ten I baby sat for a family who lived a few streets from where I lived, and I would walk there after school to baby sit for an hour or so.  It was my first job. I loved the babies then, and I will always love babies. I was taught at an early age on how to hold a baby so that his head would be balanced, and how to love and handle him. I knew how to change diapers, and how to feed a baby.

So when I was 14, I walked to my aunt and uncle's house to help them while my Aunt recovered from  her birthing experience with her second son.  Her first was one years old when her second was born so that i was asked to help care for the babies.  I learned more that summer about the reality of being a mother than anyone can imagine, and I think of that when I think of this poor 11 year old girl having to care for her young sister.

It is frankly too much to ask of a child to have to do the duties that a mother must perform.  Changing diapers, making formula, feeding the baby, burping the baby, holding and rocking the baby to sleep, listening to the cries and screams is a torment for a young child who does not understand why it is that a baby must have tender, loving care.  It is possible that the older sister was jealous of all the attention that a baby naturally requires.  Whatever the case, one must realize that the mother is who is most responsible for the wellbeing of both children, and that the girl who could not handle it must be given the benefit of love from older and more compassionate adults.

I am feeling for the older girl since I know how I felt when I learned what it took to be a mother to a newborn. It is a rough and tough job.  I did all those things that I mentioned above, in addition to cleaning bottles, sterilizing them, filling them with formula,  I watched my aunt squeeze her breasts to get rid of the milk that forms when pregnant with child. I istened to the baby cry at night, and listened to the parents as they took turns tending to his cries.  I assisted in cleaning the small house, the bottles, and the diapers.  In those days, we did not have modern conveniences like throwaway diapers.  We had cloth diapers that had to be rinsed and wished right away. I admit that I came to love the smell of baby powder, and there is nothing better than lubricating a baby's bottom and putting powder on it so that he does not chap.  But children must be taught to do this.

So I am concerned about people's reaction to an over stressed little girl in Ohio who did not have the patience and the strength to overcome her own anxieties about her baby sister.  She has a picture of herself on her Facebook page holding the baby  in her arms.  This little girl of 11 must be given love and compassion as well as her mother.  It is such a tragedy that I am just hoping that she gets the right treatment for her snapping.  I pray for her.