How do you cope when you hear things like this on the news??

Question

Okay...so I am sitting here in the cafeteria at my work, I don't watch the news anymore, it's just to hard to swallow for me ever since i became a mom. I just happend to overhear of yet another story of someone killing their baby or child. Hosnestly, I just want to vommit!!! It hurts me deeply to hear of such horrific happenings. I don't understand how people can do things like this to children (among other horrible actions), and I also don't know why the media thinks it's cool to report on this crap just to get ratings!! What are your thoughts on this and how do you cope with it??

Okay for the haters: For starters This question wasn't a fight about the media, but here are a few more thoughts: I don't think that the media is to blame for people who commit disctusing crimes, and I don't think that we shouldn't all be in the dark about the world either. Shouldn't the media offer a way for people to help children that they report on who are victimized?? Shouldn't the media report on all of the "good" in this world instead of always focusing on the "bad".
Back to the original disturbance in my heart: Why do people commit such awful acts?? Aren't there good forces left in this world?? How do you comfort yourself when your heart breaks because another innocent life has been taken??

Answer 1

My dear: Its easy to tell that you are a caring and compassionate person. I hope you stay that way as you grow
older and do not become jaded or cold in light of the drastic
realities that are taking place in this world.

Since you care this much, I would ask you to think about
joining some group that helps these people in trouble. Altho if
you get too close you may take their troubles into your own psyche.

What the news reports or doesn't report is not the problem.
The problem is that many people can see no answers to their
life problems and so do destructive things...to themselves and
to others. I don't believe any mother would destroy her own
child if she felt she had an alternative. These people are
either mentally disoriented at the time...or feel they have nowhere to turn. In today's world the pressures are getting
heavier and the answers are getting less.
BUT if you want YOUR life to remain on an even-keel, you would probably feel better by volunteering to help somewhere,
and with someone. But you also need a time of privacy where
you can think and live in your own little protected world.

Yoga helps a lot to maintain a calmness in yourself personally
and you will radiate it to those around you. If you hold all this
fear and dread and anger inside yourself, you will only end
up with problems yourself. A mother's first thought is the
protection of her own family. Then as possible, a helping
hand to another family.

A note of warning: No matter how much you want to help
someone else, be very careful who you let into your personal
circle. Some people have mental problems that you simply
cannot help.

Answer 2

When I hear stories like this on the news I give my children a few extra hugs..

The media reports these stories for one simple reason, they sell... With todays media being instant and global we hear alot more than we used to.. For instance when I was growing up in the 70's there was bomb threat at my cousins school 3 towns away... The school was evacuated and the story was all over thier local radio and town newspaper.. A bomb was found it was a dud... However not a word was in my towns newspaper and not a word on the local radio... Today that same story would be national news... People in New York City would hear about the bomb found in the small mountain town of Podunk, California population 1400...

I am not sure which is better being completely informed on a global level and seeing every horrific story OR not being informed and not seeing these stories..

For me I find it helpful to remember the telephone, the computer, the radio, and the television are in my home for my convience... If ever I hear or see something I don't wish to see or hear I tune out, turn it off, or hang up..

As for parents who do harm to or kill thier children... Some people are mentally ill and for a person to do harm to or kill thier own children to the extent that it is "News worthy" the person has to exhibit severe signs of mental illness.. There is a breakdown in the child protective system in this country and a complete overhaul is desperately needed... However until the government stops marginalizing children as second class citizens not much will change... So in the meantime like I said I hug my children a few extra times and I tune out of the programs I don't feel are atually news worthy no matter what the networks seem to think is news worthy...

Answer 3

Personally, I dont like hearing things like that on the news, but heinous crimes occur every day. You can try to block them out, you can even pretend that they dont happen, but in the end...it does. People get murdered, robbed, raped every day...and there really is nothing that we can do about it.

While I think that its sad that the media has to report this...I think that it is not their fault. Its the public, for the society that we live in wants to know about the bad. The news companies know that stories filled with gruesome deaths, and many twists and turns are the ones that people watch. They know that the people want it, so they give it to them.

News companies know that a good story will now bring up ratings as much as a bad one. You cant blame the news companies for doing what they must to ensure funding, and appeal to the mass public.

Why do people commit crimes...thats not something that I can even try to answer...for that delves into an area of the body that we as humans can not even began to understand...the brain. Human nature is way beyond the scope of any one person. Why people commit crimes is something that is questioned by psychologists the world over...and have been pondering for a long time.

Going back to listening to the stories of death and violence, I think that due to being exposed to horrible stories from a young age, we grow up with a type of buffer. We gain the ability to shrug off much of what happens. Im only 16, and in the mornings, when I listen to the news...and I hear that a boy was murdered, a teen was raped, and a house burned down killing another 5, I tend to just shrug it off. Its become a regular thing for me. Now, if something especially horrible occurs, such as he Sean Bell story, then you become interested...for a while. But only until you get distracted by some other event which occured.

I really do blame the society that we live in.
Pyro

Answer 4

I too get disgusted. I think back even 15 years. I dont remember hearing such things as shootiings in schools. Pedophiles kidnapping and raping children over the internet.

I know there have always been bad people in this world doing bad things. BUT I do think the media has a play in all this. The news now adays seems like they have not much to report and are pulling strings to fill their 1 hour spot. SO back in the day when ALOT was going on. weither it be political good things in the community they would only dable quickly mentioning a hit and run victim.

For instance this evening the news had nothing better to report for 15 minutes about a drunk driver who killed a mother of 4 on Monday evening while she jogged. END THERE. NO they had to show 20 pictures of her and her family. THE ROUTE she took. THEN went into the fact that the accused man lived 2 houses down from where he hit this woman. AS WELL he had a fight with his girlfriend. DRANK EXCESSIVLY, then did 4 times the posted speed limit and hit this woman. OH and this following monday you can go to blah blah blah church for teh funiral while the accused will sit in court asking for bail.

I was crying at the end. seeing the pictures and hearing the full story. I KNOW not to drink and drive. YET theirs others that forget. THANKS for reminding me that I too may oneday die by a possible drunk driver.

OH then they talked about our 2 days of rain for 2 minutes and the mid-west storm for 2 minutes.

Answer 5

The last report I saw on TV about a man in my area under arrest for shaking his baby spurred something positive--I learned of a free service in my community where I can drop my kids off if I feel I've reached my breaking point. They will watch your kids for up to 72 hours each time, to make sure you've had adequate time to relax and regain your composure. Sometimes it's not all about the bad news, sometimes the bad news helps to raise awareness about ways to prevent this from happening.

As far as women killing their babies, etc....of course I don't condone that behavior, but having become a mother myself, I do extend a compassion to some of them that I didn't have before. My daughter had colic for the first 3 months of her life, and it was hard on me. I had twins, so my husband and I were both sleep deprived, and for anyone who doesn't know, extended sleep deprivation alone can lead to psychosis in even the healthiest of human beings! Second, combine that with any pre-existing mental condition in a mother and you have a recipe for disaster.

Fortunately I was surrounded by people who love me and were willing to help to make sure I didn't reach that point, and I learned to get more rest when I needed it. Not to mention I had planned for the worst with my psychiatrist well beforehand.

It's always tragic when an innocent baby is hurt, but when you do become a mother you might gain a little more understanding. I pray you don't have to go through it, though, b/c it's not pretty.

Answer 6

I wholeheartedly agree with you. I was sitting in my house in New England yesterday watching a news clip about a truck accident in California, wondering why that constituted news. My advice to you would be to watch internet, global news. I'm always amazed when I go to other countries how the impetus is put on medical advances, science, literature, and the arts, and not the worst and most devastating aspects of society as they seem to be here. I feel we would be much more enlightened if our national news spent more time on advances in the world instead of domestic violence in Louisiana and Cop shootings in Boston.

Answer 7

You know, I'd like to know the same thing. I lost my 2 and 1/2 year old daughter 7 months ago due to congenital defects and it killed me inside. I have no idea how someone can hurt their child or anybody else's child for that matter. The only thing I can think of is that they must be mentally sick, I just can't come up with any other explanation for it.

Answer 8

It disgusts me, sickens me, and makes me mad as hell. I have learned to use my remote when some really annoying story, event, or person pops up- either the mute button or channel changer. I mainly watch FNC or Glenn Beck for my news since the liberal propaganda machine has become so blatantly shameless on their secular progressive agenda. When enough people stop watching this #### on TV maybe the media will take note and go back to real journalism again.

Answer 9

The media doesn't think it is "cool" to report the news. It's not the media's fault people kill their children. It is the news media's job to report the news. People killing their children is news. If you don't want to watch it, or listen to it you can do as you have chosen to do and not watch it. You, however, do not have the right to keep other's from watching it if they choose to. As to how do I cope. I am a realist and I know there are the types of people in this world who would do such things, and I pray that they are caught up with. If not in this life as a Christain I know God will judge them later.

Answer 10

I just don't watch the news. Ever. They give us such a skewed view of the world. If anything really major happens in the world someone tells me about it. If I want to read about it I go online- there I can choose which stories to read about and which not to. That's the problem with watching news- they choose what you watch.