Pick on Somebody Your Own Size!

My heart is breaking for the Peterson family. If you don't know who Adrian Peterson is, don't worry. I am about to tell you. He is the Running Back for the Minnesota Vikings, and a man who just lost his 2 year old son to domestic violence. Peterson's son, 2, suffered severe head injuries that ultimately led to the child's death.

How can you harm the innocent? How can you get angry enough to beat a child senseless, or worse, dead? They are people. They have feelings. They are perfect in every way. What drives someone to commit such heinous crimes, and to defenseless children? I am honestly lost.

I get angry with my children. What parent doesn't? They get punished. I usually make sure the punishment fits the crime. There are spankings involved sometimes. Never in a million years would I beat them though.
I couldn't. All of my children have innocence in their eyes, love in their hearts, sweetness in their souls.

When my oldest looks at me with his deep blue eyes, his long eyelashes, and the big grin that flashes across his soft cheeks, I melt. No matter how mad I am. When my middle child tells me about something he found on the computer, or shows me a picture he drew, his crystal blue eyes light up, and he bounces all over the place. It makes me want to hug him and squeeze him. When the princess gives me her big toothy grin, and flashes her dark blue marble eyes, with just a hint of a twinkle, and lays her head in my lap.....well...it makes me want to sit there forever.

My 3 children are far from perfect though. They can be little terrors as well. When they act that way I usually send them to their rooms before dishing out a punishment. I do that because I usually need to take a step back from the situation. I don't want to say or do anything that I may regret. Once I've calmed down, and they have calmed down, that's when I usually dish out the punishment, or realize that the time in their room was good enough.

I love my kids so much. They are my world. When I get angry with them, I can see the hurt in their eyes. I can see their heads hung in shame. I can see the guilt they feel when they disappoint me. It physically hurts me to see them hurting, emotionally or physically. I get a horrible pain in my chest.

A child's spark should never fizzle out before the party is over. I am dreading the day when that little twinkle in their eyes leaves, and is replaced with the dull haze that begins to cloud over us as we age. I want for my kids to experience the magic that is childhood. I want to be the person who gets to help create it, and share in it it with them. I want them to look at me with love, and happiness. I want them to laugh so hard that their little bellies jiggle.

We should all want that for our children. As a matter of fact, we should want that for everyone's children. I can barely stand to see sadness on the face of any child. A mother is always supposed to protect her babies. She is supposed to put them first. She is supposed to recognize when her children are anywhere near danger.
How is it possible for a child beaten to death with no prior warning signs? 9 times out of 10 it is not possible. An abuser has a history, and before moving your child in to your partners home you should research that past. Had the mother did that, she could have saved her child's life! I read this on USAToday,

"Patterson has a prior domestic abuse record with a different woman and child, having pleaded guilty to simple assault in an incident last year involving an adult female and juvenile male."

So, obviously he is no stranger to violence. Who puts their baby in that kind of a situation? How can someone wake up and look at their face in the mirror, knowing that you put your child into an unsafe environment? I wonder if she even felt the tiniest speck of guilt for leaving her son there alone with this monster. Then I have to wonder how he can live with himself. Murdering a child....an innocent human being, a helpless baby. A small being who has unconditional love in their heart. How can you hear a child cry out in pain? Inflict torture onto their small sweet bodies? How can you not smile when you are watching a chubby, little, bowlegged, diaper butt baby running down the hallway laughing??

The sound of my children laughing never gets old. While they often do things that irritate me and frustrate me, I can't imagine ever getting angry enough to inflict deadly force onto a small little angel who doesn't even know better.


RIP Little Man You will never have to live in fear again.
This portion has been edited to remove a picture I was mislead by.
How could this face anger you enough to want to beat her to death?

Or these faces?