MyTalesFromTheCrib: My Heart Goes Out To Boston. Trying to cope with tragedy while being a mom.

Tuesday

My Heart Goes Out To Boston. Trying to cope with tragedy while being a mom.

As a stay-at-home mom of two small children who are 5 and 2, my ability and willingness to stay informed via the television or internet news videos during a national tragedy is very limited. Like most moms of small children who are still at home during the day, I do not expose them to anything on the news - especially things of a graphic, tense, scary or disturbing nature. Therefore, I am somewhat in the dark when it comes to the intricate details of school shootings, theater shootings, mass bombings, or major natural disasters like earthquakes, floods, hurricanes and tsunamis. Which I guess you could say is a good thing. I'm aware of them and my heart goes out to the victims and their loved ones but since I've become a mom, I'm just not devouring the details like everyone else. I learned my lesson with Columbine. There wasn't a detail about that entire experience I couldn't recite and it became very unhealthy.

Part of my reason for avoiding the details is that it's hard to separate your reality from it and part of it is the need for everyone to share such graphic photos of the victims on the internet as well as the nightly news, and then talk about the details of the events with children present or within ear shot. I'd like to ask people to please be mindful of the information the little ones in your life might be soaking up from the media or from your conversations with others.

I know for myself I take on too much of the negativity and internalize it and dwell on it and the fact that I can't help those poor people. It eventually manifests itself into anger or depression, especially when I want to help but don't really have a realistic way to help out from across the country other than writing a check to a major organization like the Red Cross or something.

As a mom I have to face these things differently. So in between naps, snacks, crafts and preschool drop offs/pick ups I check-in on facebook or CNN online, etc., to watch the death toll rise - feeling utterly helpless.

I follow a local news channel on facebook and today they posted about the Boston Marathon bombings and I read a comment made by a mother who tagged her adult son asking him or anyone who knows him to please contact her. She had not heard from him yet and she was getting worried because she was pretty sure he was running the marathon since he runs many of the major marathons across the country. I hope she finds him to be OK. In my twitter feed I read a tweet from a women I follow who said that her sister's nephew lost a leg today in the bombings. It's hard to keep reading about the tragedy because with events like this I find myself spacing out in this fog of devastating information, tears and deep sadness and then my toddler runs up and says, "mama, I have to go poo poo" and then breaks into hysterical laughter from his own gas. Not to make light of the situation or to disrespect the victims or their families, this is just my reality at the moment. Children have this way of reminding us of our present reality regardless of any major disaster or devastation that is going on in the world around us - and I'm grateful to them for that.

My heart goes out to you Boston. You are in my thoughts. You are in my prayers. You are on my mind today and the coming days. I hope we can all find the answers we need.

Today my preschooler and I decided to paint with water colors. It was a gloomy day for reasons other than just the funky weather and painting seemed like the best solution for us to bring some light into our day even though she had no idea what happened in Boston today.

We found ourselves painting rainbow hearts. It wasn't really planned, it was just something our brushes were guiding us to do. I'm dedicating our paintings to the victims and families of the Boston Marathon bombings today. We're calling them Hearts For Boston and I'm posting them on our facebook page too. I hope it inspires someone else to create Hearts For Boston too. If you do then please be sure to post it on our page so we can share it and spread some love to the victims and their families. There is so much negativity surrounding the event and trying to find out who did it and why we tend to loose sight that people are hurting both physically and mentally and we need to support them with love. Our world needs more love, I know that for sure.

Painted for one of the young victims of the Boston Marathon bombings. I would love to somehow send this to his family but I'm not sure where to send it. If you have any suggestions on where I could send it please let me know in the comments section. Thank you!!