Do news stories really affect you?
After reading that awful Ian Watkins story yesterday i have thought of little else. I cant get it out of my head what that poor baby must have gone through. It makes me feel sick to my stomach to think there are people out there who will do this to children. I was in tears earlier. I feel like i dont want to let my kids out of my sight. I wish i had never read about it and now i'll never forget those awful details.
I was the same with April Jones too and that girl in India who was gang raped and murdered.
Do other people get affected in this way? How do you protect your kids from these people? I constantly worry and work myself up thinking of all the awful things that can happen and live in constant fear of losing those close to me. Do other people feel this way? I feel like i have these horrible thoughts in my head a lot of the time. Every time H gets in the xar i worry he might have an accident. Not really sure how to stop it though??
Replies
Yes the Daniel pelka case REALLY affected me, I was so upset. I purposefully didnt read much, then seen the mum and bf had been sentances, headed in to a child protection study day where they just constantly referred to Daniel and baby P, people were clearly upset so they then just kind of wrapped the day up but for weeks I felt so sad about it.
I am exactly the same, and have been since childhood. Things seem to affect me very deeply and I dwell on things and can't shake them for ages. As a child I was very sensitive and had a lot of 'worries' that others didn't seem to have, for example the first Iraq war when I was about 9 made me so frightened that we'd be blown up or my Dad would have to go and fight! I didn't really understand but seeing things on the news affected me and I'd blow it out of proportion and irrationally worry. Even now I remember things and mention them to Mum and she can't believe the things I used to worry about.
I feel sad/angry etc when reading/seeing them in the news, but I never dwell on what I read.
It only really affects me, if I know them.
I think because I have lived through child abuse, rapes, and murder, all within my own family, I am hardened to it when I read about other people going through it.
My H calls me cold, and hard nosed, but I had to be.
Yes I do and I can barely read or watch the news anymore because of it. The James Bulger case really affects me and as a result I literally don't take my eyes off N when we're out. If he walks off out of my line of sight in a shop, even though I know he's probably just in the next aisle, I freak and shout for him! When he goes out with my H I really worry, especially as H doesn't always keep his eye on him (to my standard anyway) and so I tell them both before they go out that they must hold hands at all times and tell H not to take his eyes off him. I worry about everything like that, crossing roads because of the freak accidents you hear about etc.
I try not to let them get to me but a few cases have, James Bulger, obviously I was only young when it happened but I remember watching the news and sobbing over it. Another was Madeleine McCann, I couldn't stop thinking about her and her family and used to dream about her, it was horrible. Others are April Jones, Baby P and Daniel Pelka.
I don't think about things happening to my kids like that, its more how sad and disgusted I feel for the children and the people who have harmed them. If I think I know something will affect me then I try not to read much about the case, like Ian Watkins, I haven't read much about it, its too disturbing.
yes. when I was pregnant the big news story was about the man who kept his daughter locked in the basement in Austria and she had children by him, including one of twins who died. I couldn't get it out of my head how frightened she must have been to give birth by her self and the conditions that she had to bring her children up.
No, not in the way that make me physically upset. Some things do sometimes. We had to trawl through the Daniel Pelka Serious Case Review at work this week, and that was pretty grim reading, but we always have to go through SCRs and they are never nice.
What affects me more are the Child Protection issues surrounding the children I actually work with - some things they have to go through, and we have to know about are horrible, and it's real life because they are in your class or school, and you know them and the people involved. That I find a lot harder, and it does make me cry sometimes. But when it's part of your almost daily working life, the shock factor isn't there, because unfortunately you become used to hearing the shocking stuff. I've heard absolutely horrific things said by children about their experiences, in the most naiive way, I couldn't even type it here (I couldn't anyway, I wouldn't be allowed, but I still wouldn't). Some phrases or experiences just go round and round in my mind sometimes and do freak me out, and I thank my lucky stars that I never had to personally experience what they do and that my own children don't either.
Thanks everyone. At least i know i am not the only one that feels like this and i am so sorry to hear some of you have had to deal with these awful situations in real life. I cant even imagine how hard that must be x
I'm pretty good at switching off and not thinking about things. I may get upset when I first hear about it or see it on tv but I'm able to move on and not dwell.