There are some stories that leave you wondering if the rest of the planet is operating on a different frequency or received a different set of instructions on how to behave than you did. There are some things that are so obviously wrong for a parent to do that it's hard to see how other people can do them. And do them all the time. Some examples:
Yelling obscenities at a sporting event - especially one where your children are the players
Organizing a physical battle between your children, to settle a score or fight over a boyfriend
Posing as a child on a social networking site, which leads to an online relationship with a child, and your objective was to harass that child or worse.
I read the paper every day and often see news reports such as those listed above. They always make you a little sick, as if your love for your own child could lead you to do such awful things yourself. Parental love is so powerful, we often joke that if our own child were in trouble, you'd have the strength to lift a car off of them, or fight off a bear.
In St. Louis, MO, an area of the country rightfully called the "Heartland", a 14 year old girl was the target of the worst kind of cyberbullying. Megan was led to believe that she had a new online friend, a cute boy named Josh, and poured out her heart to him in the confines of their MySpace pages. What she had no way of knowing was that "Josh" was really the parents of her ex-best friend who were using her trust on MySpace to monitor Megan's conversations on the Internet. Supposedly, the parents' motive was to make sure they were protecting their own child's reputation.
When Josh suddenly began sending cruel messages and a final hateful termination to the friendship, Megan was devastated. Already someone who had battled depression, Megan was enormously vulnerable to begin with. And the same day that final Josh email was received, Megan took her own life.
I have to admit I didn't tell you about this story for a few days because I was so genuinely shocked by the parental role, I had to read more about it. I am devastated that law enforcement seems to be unable to find a way to provide this family with any justice. And I'm very concerned that this legal gap is giving fuel to mob-mentality brewing in the "blogosphere" and in the St. Louis area. People, parents and community leaders, are fuming that nothing will be done to those who led this child to such despair she would take her own life.
I urge you to read about this story. Here are a few links to online articles: