So I love watching the news. I just like to be aware of my current events and, of course, it can always inspire a new idea for a book. But it seems to me that having babies has made me more sensitive to material that is shown on the news. For instance, on the “Today” show, they had a video clip of some parents at a laundromat. The father had been playing with his toddler and put the boy in the washer to play “peek-a-boo”. When the door shut on the child, the washing machine turned and wouldn’t stop until it had completed its cycle. Luckily, an employee rushed in, unplugged the machine and pried the door open. The boy had been in there for just over a minute. They took him to the hospital and he was fine.

And how was I as I watched these parents scream for help while watching their baby through the windowed door? Totally crying! Now, that doesn’t mean I was an emotional wreck or anything, but tears were slipping down my cheeks. The thing is, they reported the boy was fine before they even showed the video clip. So I knew everything ended happily, but I still cried. I know that’s not something I would have done before I had any kids. (Not to say I wouldn’t have been shocked or concerned by the story, just that I would have had my emotions in check and under control.)

But that little story is just one instance when I get emotionally impacted by a story. It doesn’t even have to be the news. I watched a show called “What Would You Do?” that had a similar effect on me. (Great show, by the way – I totally recommend it!) In one particular episode, it talked about a person several years back that had been beaten and left in the road. (This actually did happen.) Pedestrians didn’t even call for help. They all walked around the man as he lay bleeding to death. One person even stepped over him to load his groceries in the car and didn’t glance at the guy. The poor victim died. He could have survived if someone would have stopped to call the paramedics.

(If you don’t know what the show is about, they brought that story up so that they could do a more mild reenactment and see what people would do.)

Again, I cried when I saw that story. It was just too heartbreaking to me.

So I’ve come into a question as I’ve been watching shows and feeling terrible over the things I’ve seen in recent years: Am I simply more sensitive because I’ve had kids, or are people just getting worse? Who knows, it could be both.

So I guess the point of writing is blog is that I want to get your opinions about our society and what’s happening in the world today. Have things always been this bad and I’m simply having a more difficult time accepting it, or are we slowly deteriorating as people? Have our standards just gotten so low that it’s no big deal to see a man, broken and bloody, die in the street? Am I the only one to get upset over seeing that boy get stuck in a washer? I want to know what you guys think!

Note: By mentioning the story of the little boy, I’m not making any judgments on the parents. I think they’re traumatized enough by it to never do something like that again.