Sunny and hot today, I assume. I’m hopefully still in bed. My back hurts and my neck is sore and stiff from all the unfamiliar beds and pillows this past week.
I’ll be doing some security upgrades around the house, hopefully this week or next. Number one daughter needs some reassurance and they were on my list anyway, so time to execute.
My FIL, in an incredible display of selfishness and absolute cluelessness insisted on watching the nightly news every day this week at 6pm with both daughters sitting next to him. Given that this week included 3 mass shootings and the normal variety of Boston, NYFC big city ills, daughters were hammered with crime and murder for about 8 hours total. I didn’t realize what was going on, because I was doing other things in the house at the times, and didn’t think anyone would be that stupid. (He could have just watched at 10pm after the girls were in bed.) When I realized what was going on a couple of days ago, I exploded that maybe he could shut off the nonstop stream of murder and violence for a couple of hours while the kids were sitting there waiting for dinner and bed…. but somehow I’M the bad guy.
So now that we’re home, daughter says she’s scared to be here, scared that someone will break in through her window or shoot her in her bedroom. Thanks grandpa, that’s awesome. We’ve been fairly open with her about the neighborhood and real risks (very low, and mostly property crime) but I wasn’t there to address her concerns or explain anything about most of the crimes being reported on the nightly news, or to give context to it. I tried to do some of that last night, pointing out that it’s only news because it is rare, etc. and had a helpful article comparing the coverage of a driveby in Chicago with 7 injured victims vs the mass shooting coverage. NO coverage of Chicago because the same or worse happens every week (outside of Chicago sources.) Not SUPER helpful because she knows Grandma Flandrey and my sibs still live in the Chicago area, and people are getting shot there in job lots…
Anyway, I hope that some small upgrades will make her feel a bit safer at home. And it might be time to let her know about some of the other measures we take to be able to defend ourselves. One of her complaints to me was that she didn’t know where any weapons were (“and I know there are some daddy because I know you.”)
In a bigger picture look, we had the driveby shooting at our pool last year (and the attempted burglary there of our concession stand money). We had a guy jacked for his cell phone a couple of blocks away while walking his dog. Her school district had 2 lockdowns for “credible threats” last year. One of our friends had his elderly parents chase off home invasion robbers (and his kids probably told my kids) last year. We had the vehicle break in last month across the street, and the crazy ringing our doorbell at 3am. We had one of her friend’s mom robbed at gunpoint in the Costco parking lot… so her concerns are not without some basis. It’s not JUST tv news driving it.
Hell, add in the stuff she doesn’t know about, like the slavers getting busted across from her YMCA and all the drug trafficking I hear on the scanner, and maybe it is time to move.
Let me know what you guys think.
n