<p>The Oklahoma City bombing. My son was the same age as the little ones they were pulling out of the rubble of the daycare center.</p>
<p>Yup. Ever since 9/11 I’ve found that I’m very affected by news stories about violent acts. I rarely watch video coverage anymore but prefer to read news as it tends not to be as sensational.</p>
<p>There are certain types of tragic news stories that deeply affect me. I’m a news junkie, so that doesn’t help. Sometimes I tell myself that I need to unplug and turn off the news. I need to stop reading the newspapers. The only time I can successfully get away from the news is when I’m on vacation.</p>
<p>Yes, the image of the firefighter tenderly holding the dead child after the Oklahoma bombing. My oldest was the same age and I can honestly say I felt traumatized by that photo and multitude of times that it has been visualized inside my head!</p>
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<p>My oldest was the same age. That bothered me, too, for years.</p>
<p>The precious angel in the is particular atrocity looked so much like my son. I just can’t bear to think of his parents’ pain. They sent him to school, they didn’t tie their baby to a railroom track for the fun of it. And it was other kids his own age. HOW does that happen? What would allow a 12 year-old to do something like that?</p>
<p>This is one of the reasons I prefer to read the news rather than watch it. On TV, the truly horrible stories e.g. Sandy Hook they play endlessly and replay when any little new fact appears. </p>
<p>I liked the story too Lergmom.</p>
<p>For me it’s hearing stories about pets. Or abused horses, dogs, etc.</p>
<p>The Cheshire case was the very first thing I thought of, too.</p>
<p>I remember crying out when I heard on NPR that 20 little kids were killed in Newtown. 20! I just couldn’t bear it.</p>
<p>9/11 was too close for comfort–my kid was in her 2nd full day of Kindergerten in Chinatown and I was in Brooklyn. A really difficult season to live in NYC.</p>
<p>In addition to child abuse/tragedy, I cannot watch or listen to or read stories about animal abuse. Even when there’s a happy ending, I can’t.</p>
<p>I am haunted, too, by certain tragedies. The Cheshire case is one, and the young married couple and their child earlier this week. I’m haunted by the Trayvon Martin case. Some stories I just can’t read about. I don’t allow them into my consciousness. The bullying death is one of those.</p>
<p>Newtown brought back painful memories for my wife and I. Watching that father (I can’t remember his name) at the press conference and the pained look on his face was a look I knew all too well. When our son died, it was certainly not as public and we grieved privately though the pain. My wife saw the press conference and had the same reaction, “that was you”…and I nodded…Anytime a child dies suddenly and unexpectedly, you are numbed.
Unfortunately for them, their nightmare is just beginning and it doesn’t even sink in until 6 months have passed and they are not even to the three month point…</p>
<p>jandjdad, I am so sorry. Losing a child is the worst thing that can happen to a parent. I remember that Elizabeth Edwards used to say that after her son died she feared nothing, because the worst possible thing had already happened to her.</p>