On Monday a Lakewood family suffered a devastating, heart-wrenching loss.
A 21-month old girl was inadvertently left in the family car and sadly passed away. Anyone who has not experienced the loss of a child cannot begin to fathom the depths of the pain that the parents are feeling. The loss that these poor parents are experiencing is beyond imagination and is something which will stay with them for life. It doesn’t take much to realize that these are people who deserve our pity and support, not condemnation and probing questions.
Yet, to some, this doesn’t seem to be obvious. I have seen and heard multiple individuals who have posted on social media questioning the parents judgement and dedication to their child. If you are one of these people, I have one question for you: how dare you? You don’t know these parents, you don’t know the details of what happened. All you know is that a child passed away. That’s it. Who are you to question these parents, and make comments insinuating that the parents are careless?
From what I have heard, this case is no more than a horrible mistake, one that anyone could make. The child was usually dropped off by a playgroup. On that day the child refused to go and so the parent went back home. Once home, the parent forgot, understandably, that the now sleeping child was still in the back seat, and went into the house.
Such a scenario is unfortunately not very rare. Dozens of children die each year after being forgotten in cars. It happens to even the most caring of parents. So how could one pass judgement? How can someone who knows nothing of the parents, nothing about the child, and nothing about the case be laying blame?
We must be better. When a tragedy such as the one from Monday occurs, wait for the facts to come out before deciding who is to blame. There are investigators whose job it is to get to the bottom of such incidents – let them do their job. In the meantime, you should do your job and provide support and comfort from the grieving family. If you can’t do that, the least you can do is to keep your comments to yourself.
With all due respect, this post is judgmental as well. You say, “wait for the facts to come out before deciding,” and you say that since it was an understandable mistake, we should not judge. However, REGARDLESS of what the facts are, it is not our place to judge. It is not our business to know the facts, to comment, to discuss in a public forum, even if our judgment is sympathetic.
No one is judging. Chill.
Where are you hanging out on social media? I didn’t notice anyone judging the parent’s on the regular frum news sites.