Do We Really Protect Our Children?

     It is far too often I see articles regarding children abused, mistreated and neglected.  Stories of children being left alone by themselves, while parents are off doing, well, who knows what.  Incidents of social services taking a child from a parent, only to have that child die in the chosen persons care.  Why?  The reasons are not clear.  The system seems to have fallen apart, the right hand never knowing what the left is doing.

While wanting to blame “the system”, I am not sure I can.  I work with the public.  It would be far too easy to just blame our social services for the way things have become.  Parents have to take a part in raising their children, they must  be accountable for their children.  I cannot begin to count the numerous times, I have seen children come in, at the tender age of 8 or 9, only to be dressed like a lady of the evening.  Children dressed in hardly anything, walking around in makeup and looking so much older than they should.  Where are the parents?  Seated right next to them, looking as though it is an everyday occurrence.  Parents who are letting their children parade around in hardly a stitch of clothing.  Men, yes, men of all ages, gawking and drooling at them, not caring of the age of this child.  Only noticing the lack of clothing,sultry behavior and the loss of innocence.

So, do we blame men when they gawk and stare in awe over what no longer appears to be little girls, but girls made up to be much older than they actually are?  When men approach them, the parents seem outraged, bewildered.  They find themselves asking, “how did this happen to my child?”. 

Take a long hard look at how your child is dressed before they leave the house.  Do they look their age or are you rushing them to look like a magazine model, perhaps preparing them for the runway?  Parents, your protection are all they have, it begins with you. 

Before we blame someone else, let’s do all we can to keep our children’s innocence, as long as we can.  Life takes it far to soon, we don’t need to rush it.