IS IT CARELESSNESS OR CALLOUSNESS?

Picture of Fida Harris, who died in a locked school van

MANY INCIDENTS HAVE MADE ME WONDER IF THE MODERN DAY PARENTS ARE CARELESS OR CALLOUS...I cannot forget how we were brought up, an atmosphere of utmost care, parents, grandparents, siblings, Uncles, Aunts and extended family tending to us. We fall once, the Mother arrives first, then the father, grandparents....and ensues an hour of crying and soothing. I don't remember a day when i was not crying and being soothed by my parents. Modern day parents make me wonder if we were brought up more dependent on our parents. Children these days are more responsible by themselves and are more independent, a welcome phenomena, but i wonder is there more to it?

One incident that shocked me to hell happened here few months back. I still remember the pathetic child's name- Fida Harris. The sleeping UKG girl of IIS, Dammam was locked up in a school van irresponsibly by the driver, left in front of the school under the scorching desert sun for 5 hours. When the van was opened for afternoon trip, it was too late, the child had died...I am at a loss of words right now-



Looking at the cute little one, i am reminded of  my daughter in the same class in the same school, travelling by the same vans. It seems the driver was attending a phone call when he forgot to look inside the van after the children got down and just locked up by remote and left off. Can you imagine the last moments of that poor child??? Only reason, she was carelessly locked up and the little one did not know to open the lock from inside the van. Another episode was in a shopping mall in Dammam, where the lift was out of order and despite a board that it was out of service, a toddler who had roamed away from his parents, fell down to death. One more episode in Jeddah was where a 5 month old baby was left behind in a car a full night, that died. The mother had thought the child was with the maid and the maid had thought it was with the mother. Our own countrymen are no better- we boast of the extreme Indian care and love and affection. But we come across many incidents where children fall in open tube wells, open water tanks, and the recent murder for extortion cases of Muskan and Hrithik. I must say i was real happy when the murderer of the children Muskan and Hrithik was shot dead in an encounter by police.

Muskan, 11 and Hrithik 8 yrs old. Muskan was raped and drowned, Hrithik was drowned

How gruesome human race has become and how vulnerable our little ones are, leaves little to be imagined. Our indifferent attitudes, carelessness and irresponsibility towards our younger ones must be the most heinous crime, worse than a preplanned murder. I would not term all these cases as carelessness but all these were CALLOUS. Many people who have seen me take care of my kids, including my motherinlaw, say i am making my children more dependent on me. But i would rather love to be a clucking mother hen, than leave my children in someone else's careless hands.

IF OUR LITTLE ONES ARE NOT SAFE IN OUR OWN HANDS, WHERE ON EARTH WOULD THEY BE SAFE?