Monday, November 12, 2007

I Tried All Night Not to Break Down and Cry as the Tears Rolled Down My Face

Aaron's parents came by this weekend for a super-short trip. Actually, we weren't the highlight of their trip, but more on that later.

Yesterday as we were eating lunch I asked Aaron's step-father about how everyone in the family was doing. And he replied, "Well, you heard about Brenda's babysitter, right?"

(Brenda is Aaron's step-sister, she has three daughters - 10, 2 and 10 months.)

"No..."

"Oh. Um. Well.."

Brenda's babysitter (I just typed "babyshitter" which is So Very Appropriate), who keeps the two little ones all day on weekdays, was just arrested for murdering a baby in her care.

Murdered. A. Baby. In. Her. Care.

The baby in question was five months old and crying a lot with teething. Supposedly, she crushed up an Ambien (prescription sleeping pill) and put it in his bottle. He was dead within minutes.

Initially, everyone thought the baby died of SIDS. The parents of the baby even kept their four year old child in the daycare (as did Aaron's step-sister). Then the toxicology report came back and then the daycare provider confessed.

Oh my God. Can you even imagine?

I'm the first person to claim I don't have my shit together. But to give a baby a sleeping pill? And then she confessed to giving nearly all the children she cared for Benadryl to keep the "calm" while in her care.

Holy fuck
.

16 comments:

Anonymous said...

Oh.my.god! Makes me glad my kids are out of daycare! Yikes!

Anonymous said...

Exactly why I stay at home instead of earning money we could definitely use...that is way to freaking scary!

Anonymous said...

This is why I stay home too.

Scary. And very sad.

LJ said...

::Her license has been suspended.::

Ya think???

Meegan Blue said...

I can't even begin to handle the sadness of that story. Those poor, poor parents. All of them, really, for surely none of those kids were being cared for appropriately. So sad. I'm going to hug my own extra tight today. I feel luckier than ever that I'm at home with them every day.

Anonymous said...

That's horrible. It sounds like she couldn't deal with having kids around at all. If only she had just quit!

Chickenbells said...

Oh my goodness! I can't believe someone would DO that...we had a friend who's niece was murdered by a foster father (he and his girlfriend were trying to get her and her brother by going through the state since kids here don't immediately go to family anymore) We could never even imagine what a 2 year old could do that would warrant her death...what the hell are people thinking?

Anonymous said...

I'm speechless. Terrifying.

gwendomama said...

don't even get me started.
i could use up pages on this one.

Anonymous said...

That is awful. It's actually beyond awful. I just cannot fathom how someone in that role could so something so wrong.

Amanda said...

Dear God. What possesses people to care for children as a profession when they obviously have not a compassionate bone in their body?

World Wide Alternative said...

Man. And people look at me strange when I say that I'm not sure I want the girls to go to daycare...

Marshamlow said...

That is so horrid, it is so hard to trust people with our children, things like this makes it even worse.

lera said...

That is completely insane. And terrifying.

beki said...

how awful!

Anonymous said...

Good God. How terrible. I can't even imagine.

She has to live with herself. May she be tormented every last minute of the rest of her miserable life.