I would like to share with you a situation that presented it self late last week and the danger that came with it.

Early last week our car started to make some serious noises that were not good. I was unable to clearly identify the noise but with the limited tools that I have, tried to locate and at least see if it was something I could fix. But I could not nail it down. After several days of limited car use where the car drive ok but was very noisy, difficulties of transporting children the vast distance to schools, we needed to use the car. Public transport was not a viable option given that it goes to a totally different town then where the schools are and the fact we had actually run out of money and were eating only from the non perishables in our cupboard just made it all the more difficult.

We now needed to use the car. Cate needed to be at the airport and we needed to get the kids to school. We were left with no option but to try and nurse the car to where we had to go. The noises got louder and louder as we travelled. After making it to the first school and dropping off the older boys, it happened. A very large bang, erratic steering and limited brakes as we moved out onto a major road. We were only travelling slowly and nobody was in danger. I pulled the car up in an emergency stopping bay and checked the damage. Smoke coming from the front wheel. We were not going anywhere in this car.

We quickly unloaded the children out of the car and away from the road as far as possible to ensure their safety. A few quick but unanswered phone calls and a few tweet messages asking for any assistance and we decided the safest option was to move the children off the motorway altogether. So we loaded up with all the bags, four children and headed for the nearest off ramp to safety. The most surprising thing was that at that point no one single car slowed down while passing us. Cars travelling at 100 km/h whizzing past us without any regards for the safety of the children they were passing. We kept as far off the roadside as possible but with the overgrown roadside we were not able to be too far off the road. And still nobody slowed down.

We had walked close to a kilometre when we approached the nearest off ramp and were able to move behind the barrier to some level of safety, but still with only the small barrier between us and the cars on the off ramp, cars did not slow down and continued to “fly” past us with just two meters clearance at full speed. What is it that we can not look a head and see danger anymore and alter our speed to ensure we pass that spot with some level of safety. Are we all so self absorbed in our own little cocoons that we don’t give a damn what’s outside our bubble anymore? I just don’t understand! There were small children on the edge of the road, we were visible but nobody cared.

I will follow up the post with the remainder of our “adventure” as there are a few people I need to mention that went out of their way to ensure our safety and that we also got back home.

What is it with us now? Why don’t we see the danger ahead and slow down? Do you look ahead when driving anymore? Do you slow down when you see/sense something out of the ordinary? What would you expect if you were in the same position?

Thanks for reading

Rick

I am almost certain that Cate will have written or posted something about what this blog post pertains to as I know just how much this impacts on her. I have not had any opportunity to check what Cate may have written prior to post this…………………………

I’m a father to what is now days considered a rather large family. A lot of the time I take having children around as granted because they are always there. Although I am told by Cate to think about the safety of the children a lot more then I do. But being the pig headed male that I am, I tend to hear but not listen.

The past few months have really culminated this morning. Far too many times over the past few months the news bulletins I’m listening to or watching are carrying stories of children missing or being hurt or now all to often being killed. This morning while driving the children to school I was listening to news as I always do, waiting in hope for the story to come up of the 3 year old little boy that went missing from his home in Melbourne’s northern suburbs yesterday afternoon. The story came up and  against all hope the little boy was found deceased by the side of a road 20 or 30 km from where he disappeared.  Tears started to roll down my face from under my sun glasses. I was able to hide this from the kids as they chatted and played.  “This just can’t be!”, not another one. Then another story followed of a 6 yo child that was found drowned in a dam at 12:30 this morning in NSW.  Two more families destroyed, two more little lives gone, for what reason? I don’t know either family but I cried at their loss, what parent wouldn’t?

What is going on in this world?  Little people dying by drowning in dams, at the hands of other children and even at the hands of adults… WHY? What has changed in the world that now sees so many children facing such untimely death? Have I had my head in the sand for so long that nothing has actually changed but now suddenly I’m noticing? OR Is it that we are losing more children in this manner more often they we use too and if so, why? And I say “we” as a parent, a parent concerned now for the safety of not only my children but all children.

I can not in any way imagine how the parents of all of these children continue to function with the loss of their children no matter how it occurs. The fear I felt when Charlie went “walkabout” with Jasmine last year was horrific, but he was safe, although given where we lived at the time, the outcome could have been significantly worse. While writing the post I keep having the thought, what has happened where the community helped raise the local children? I know that now days we don’t tend to stay in the same house for long periods, but when a family moves into a community, why isn’t it like when I was growing up? The “new” neighbours would quickly make themselves known and eye would always be watching out for the neighbourhood kids. When this occurred when I was a kid, I’m sure there were nowhere near as many child fatalities?

I am positive that there is nobody other then Cate and Myself watching out for our children…

If you have children, does the neighbourhood help you watch or look out for your children?

Rick