I didn’t make any New Year’s resolutions so much as I had one great hope: No more dismal news headlines about children. Of course that hop-olution was broken only hours into 2015. Already this year there have been stories about the 7-year-old girl who survived a plane crash that killed her entire family (hopeful for her, unspeakably sad otherwise), a 3-week-old infant who may have been shot to death by his 6-year-old brother, and Sarah Palin, who defended her 6-year-old son to PETA for stepping on the family’s dog by saying, “Chill. At least he didn’t eat the dog.”
Did you read the one about #UnitedWithIvy? That was the recent story about the parents of a 3-year-old girl with special needs who shamed United Airlines for not allowing her to sit on their lap on the plane, saying she could not sit upright unassisted. It became a hashtag that brought out star power and the parenting police, and in the end, United apologized since ultimately they found a rule stating that, under these specific circumstances, it was technically allowable.
However, buried a bit deeper in the story was news that the parents purchased tickets for themselves in first class and economy for their four kids — all while knowing there was a chance there could be an issue with a child over the age of 2 sitting on a parent’s lap. It might have been an easier maneuver had one of the parents given up their pricier ticket for cattle class, but they wouldn’t. It’s one of those stories where you might walk away feeling as if no one’s hands are especially clean. And when there’s a small child in the middle of it, it’s that much dirtier.
You didn’t have to look too far last year (or, frankly, in any year prior) to have your heart break upon reading a true story of child abuse, sickness, death, poverty, famine, war, and starvation. 2014 felt like a long year for all those reasons, and it seems as if 2015 is already on track to follow suit, although a parent can hope for a miracle.
Wouldn’t any of these headlines make for a lovely change of pace?
1. Flight with Family of Small Children was Totally Uneventful
2. Not a Single School from Coast to Coast Found Teachers Having Sex with Students
3. Cure to All Childhood Cancers Is Found, to Become Available Within Days
4. No Parent Forgot to Take Their Kids Out of the Car in Freezing and Boiling Temperatures
5. United Nations Declares War-Free Zone Within 500 Miles of All Children
6. For the First Time Since Columbine, America Went an Entire Year Without School Shootings
7. FCC Determines Children Under 21 No Longer Allowed on Reality TV Shows
8. LGBTQ Kids Made to Feel Welcome at Schools, Churches, and Homes (Even in Utah and the South)
9. 24 Whole Hours Passed Without Anyone Debating Breast vs. Bottle, Home vs. Hospital Birth
10. The Internet Finally Discovers How To Filter Out Perverts, Bullies, and Jerks
11. Billionaires Team Up to End Starvation, Illiteracy, Malaria
12. School Cafeterias Finally Figure Out How to Serve Healthy, Delicious Food that All Kids Can Afford
13. President Obama Declares “Mommy Wars” to be Banished from the Lexicon
14. Congress Passes a Law Making Paid Maternity Leave a Right, Not a Privilege
15. Kardashians, Justin Bieber to Retire Permanently to First-Ever Mars Colony
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