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There is nothing more heartbreaking than hearing that yet another young girl has had her life completely changed forever by having sex too young, out of wedlock, and giving birth to a child. Oh, wait… there is something more heartbreaking – finding out that there is an 11 year old going through what used to be considered ‘teen parenthood’ … Only now, it has come to light that DNA results have proven that the father of her child is actually her mother’s husband, who has apparently been having sex with his step daughter sometimes as often as three times per week since she was SIX years old. Now, this entire situation has taken on a completely different dynamic. Now, it has reached a new level of heartbreaking.

My heart hurts. My head hurts. My blood is boiling! A few weeks ago, I wrote an article entitled Way Too Much Sex on my blog. Parents are often hesitant to talk to their children about sex – or anything related to it – until they feel their child is old enough. NEWSFLASH: By the time you *think* they are old enough, they’re probably *too* old for “The Talk” because they already know more than what you’re about to tell them. What’s more important than TEACHING your kids about sex itself is actually opening dialog about matters pertaining to it, such as molestation and inappropriate touching. Those are topics your child should NOT be fearful about discussing with you. By never bringing them up, you’re telling them that those aren’t topics you welcome from them… and chances are, if they are ever put in a horrible situation like this girl was, their perpetrator is going to be reaffirming that notion by convincing them that they will get into trouble themselves if they tell.

DO NOT LET SOMEONE TAKE ADVANTAGE OF YOUR CHILD because you chose to remain silent. This man was having sex with this little girl for five years. It took her getting pregnant and giving birth at 11 years of age for the truth to come out. Now, not only is she at risk physically from the hormones and other potential damage this pregnancy has exposed her little body to, but she is a mother. Emotionally… mentally… what does that mean in her life right now? What does it mean for her life in 10 years? What will that mean for her child? This man has potentially ruined several lives by his actions. I wonder if he cares about any of them except his own. That is highly doubtful. He’s a sick, twisted animal whose only concern is for his own desires… Unfortunately, there are people like him everywhere.

Parents, no one is going to protect your child like you will. I feel so bad for this little girl. She’s just a year older than my daughter who turned ten yesterday. I cannot imagine the anguish I would feel, knowing that someone had violated her trust in such a way… and knowing that she didn’t trust me enough to help her. Your children are counting on you to keep them safe.

Are you doing all you can to ensure that happens?

You can join the discussion by commenting below, or carrying your opinions over to our Discussion Forum thread covering this topic.

It’s a haunting thought… how can a child fall victim to such a heinous crime?

Then… the little girl’s ‘body’ is found – and it is not a middle aged, mentally challenged, psychotic man with prior child-related offenses on his record that we’re glaring down at looking for answers; no, there is a 15 year old child in the hotseat who is apparently responsible for the death of this little girl. So now, not only do we have to be wary of pathetic pedophiles; not only are demented adult sickos after our children, but now – now, we must protect our children from CHILDREN as well, and not just the bully kind that wants a buck at lunch every day.

My mind takes me back to a time I once heard of where villages were involved in raising – and protecting – children. During that time, children could play in the street, walk to town, stay outside from dawn to dusk riding bikes and being mischievous – and there was no question of whether or not they would make it home at night. Now, we barely know our neighbors and we’re programmed to get offended if we receive any type of ‘bad’ report from someone else about our children. We don’t want people in our business… Today, we’re doing good if we manage to wave to the people on our block a couple of times a week. How many of your neighbors can you call by name {without them wondering if you’ve been pilfering through their mail to get their information}?

I personally believe that we have traded our safety for privacy at a very precious price. We’ve sacrificed the security of the village and now, we’re losing our children – in more ways than one.

I’ve seen people knock the crap out of their kids in WalMart… you know, the whole “PUT-THAT-DOWN!”-*smack!* kind of thing. But never… NEVER… have I ever seen anyone knock the crap out of someone ELSE’s kid in WalMart. Until now.

Ok, granted *I* didn’t personally see it, but just the mental visualization is enough in itself. I’ve pondered many a day over this situation and no matter how I look at it, I just keep coming back to the same question: HOW did this man get his hands on this woman’s kid with her standing there? The report says that the man WARNED the mother to quiet her 2 year old daughter or HE would. This would be immediately become a problem for me. Did you just THREATEN my toddler? {I would have been asking this question rhetorically as I was taking off my earrings and rolling back my sleeves.}

I think the thing that bothers me the most about this whole ordeal is that I keep being burdened by the question of WHO is going to protect our children if WE don’t? I mean, seriously – think this through from beginning to end:

You’re walking along through WalMart with your 2 year old kid in the buggy. You’ve been in there a while. The kid is bored… she’s just entered into the terrible-two world of autonomy, limitation stretching, and boundary breaking. She was ready to GO like 20 minutes ago, but you’re only got a fewwww things left to grab. So, what does she do? She starts whining… and it gradually gets increasingly louder as the minutes roll by. You’re stressed… you’re going as fast as you can. You’re doing the best you can. BREATHE. Up walks this old man and you’re thinking that – like everyone else – he’s going to say something about how cute your precious little girl is, but instead out pops this rude and shocking comment about shutting your kid up FOR you if you don’t do it yourself.

My reaction process would go a little like this:

1. BRAIN MELT DOWN
2. … must find keys
3. … must gouge eyes out
4. … MUST PROTECT OFFSPRING!

There just IS no other way to respond to this type of threat. I mean, this is your KID he’s talking about! Dude, I double … no, I TRIPLE-dog dare you to stick your hand over toward my cart. You don’t even have to touch it. Just ease it over this way. YOU WILL MOST DEFINITELY DRAW BACK A NUB! Yep, that’s right – one of those things without any digits on it… Anyway, back on topic – so let’s give the lady the benefit of the doubt. Perhaps she ignored the comment thinking he was just being a mean old fart and not imagining in her wildest dreams he would actually DO anything. BUT, oh dear Lord…

The man reaches over and commences to slapping this child about the FACE. Re-peat-ed-ly…

All rationale and reason goes out the window at this point as far as I’m concerned. There is no right or wrong. There is no calm and collected. There is no understanding you’re an old fart. There is only THAT IS MY KID YOU’RE HITTING! But, this mother actually allows for enough time for her child to be struck at least 4 times.

I’m getting a headache just trying to wrap my mind around that.

FOUR … count with me … 1 … 2 … 3 … 4 … FOUR times this man struck this little girl. And the mom is SCREAMING at him. Really? He has enough time to extend and retract his arm FOUR times while popping the little apple-of-your-eye in the FACE and I have to assume that there is some type of genetic issue with your arms which prevented you from DOING SOMETHING ABOUT IT!?

Look, people… I won’t drag this out to be a terribly long post. All of this is just my extremely lengthy and personally meaningful way of saying STOP letting people take advantage of you! I don’t know what on God’s green earth leads a person to believe it to be acceptable for them to put their hands on someone else’s child… There are some freakin crazies in the world – no doubt about it. That being said, I don’t care what type of fear or apprehension you would have on a normal day, but on a day where some stranger grabs your kid and starts trying to knock her ear wax out through her nostril, I would hope to HEAVEN that you do something to put at end to the abuse prior to lick number FOUR.

What do you think?

Did the mother handle this in a way the typical mother would respond? Am I just some psycho crazy mama, assuming that others would be willing to go to war for their children since, clearly, I would? I’d love to know your thoughts on this situation. I’ve even heard it suggested that the mother was neglectful in allowing this to happen to her child right in front of her. What do you say to that? Post a comment at the bottom of this page to join in the conversation!