Needless to say, in the interest of shielding my baby from further aggression at the hands of a little girl with obvious issues, there were no further beach excursions with this neighbor, whom I distanced myself from.
Your story is of course much more horrifying, and I only draw the comparison as a means of highlighting that desire so deep-rooted in a mother’s heart — to shield her innocents from the cruelty out there, sometimes where we least expect to confront it.
Our duty as parents is a constant: to be our children’s role models. The home environment we raise our children in is going to be their strongest influence in life. If we teach them right from wrong while showering them with our love and attention, we will help them foster a sense of self-worth that will buttress the hard lessons life will inevitably expose them to.
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