Help! Love, MOM

In case you’re unfamiliar, smart bassinets are one of the newest must have items for parents of newborns.

What is a smart bassinet? I’m glad you asked.

A smart bassinet is a bed for a newborn which can both soothe and monitor the infant in a variety of ways.

Equipped with the technology to offer soothing lullabies, to provide gentle swaying, and the ability to monitor the baby’s sleep, the smart bassinet may help babies sleep longer.

Therefore, this baby bed can also be a way for the sleep deprived parent to rest – just a little longer.

More sleep may be the only justification needed for a fatigued family to budget for the smart bassinet’s, usually, high cost.

But, of course, a couple may make the purchase thinking ahead to use the bassinet for future children, or, they may choose to buy a less expensive brand, a used model or to rent as a few options.

I firmly believe that, on the whole, families of every socio-economic level do the best they can to rear children well with the resources and time and energy that they have available to them. I believe that this is true whether or not they can afford a pricey item like a smart bassinet.

A smart bassinet, an expensive purchase for some, may be part of that deployment of resources in the service of rearing children well starting from the earliest days of their children’s lives.

Many, of course, believe that the first or earliest things have special significance.

Family and friends, knowing that I work in school, will often ask, How was the first (earliest) day of school?

The first day of my new school year was smooth, on the whole.

That is, it was smooth right up to the last hour or 45 minutes of the school day. Then, it became clear that, apparently, a student set a small fire in a stair well.

My First Day of School – KPJ

Because fire setting had been a disturbing and recurring issue from the prior school year, while I wasn’t surprised, I was deeply disappointed that we were starting the new year in similar fashion to the prior year.

The school fire – no matter the source or size – required the appropriate school officials to pull the fire alarm. The fire alarm, in turn, brought a response from the fire department.

If you remember your school days, provided that they were invested in the USA, you may recall fire drills where your teachers and other school personnel gathered the students.

They likely led you and your class mates outside of school to pre-planned places to wait for the signal to return to the school, where your day, that is, your routine continued.

This is what happened in my school on the first day of school. Only, in my school’s case, because a small fire was actually set, it was not a drill.

DRAMA on the first day of school!!

Then, upon returning from the drill, I noticed a text asking me, and the rest of my cousins on the group text, to pray for Georgia.

To my “Why? What happened?” I received no initial response. So, before my cousins answered, I searched and found out about the earlier-in-the-day Georgia school shooting.

When will the last school shooting, be THE LAST school shooting?

I can’t describe adequately all my feelings in that moment.

However, a well of deep concern at this recurring American issue, and that it had happened on the earliest, the first day of school in my city, seemed to darken the gorgeous light of that, otherwise, beautiful autumn afternoon.

Along with the (small) fire at my school, and now the shooting at the Georgia school, I was grievously sad and disheartened.

I am likely not the only one.

In a 2022 study of school shootings, more than 100,000 American children [in Texas alone] attended a school at which a shooting took place in 2018 and 2019. Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research (SIEPR)

What I discovered and what the SIEPR Texas study exposes, interestingly, is that children may sustain damaging effects post shooting even when there are no fatalities.

However, by being exposed to danger at school, “studies have consistently found consequences to [children’s] mental health, educational, and economic trajectories that last for years, and potentially decades, to come.”

But, the same study highlighted that “some have argued that children are very resilient and can ‘bounce back’ from trauma, implying that childhood violence exposure — while being damaging in the short run — may not have lasting effects.”

Research indicates a higher rate of antidepressant use among those exposed to a school shooting in the years following the gun violence.

Of course, Americans have had guns for just about as long as bassinets.

But, sometimes it appears that we are much more attached to our guns and their content than to our bassinets and their precious content.

We willingly embrace a new, expensive bassinet to help our children sleep better so that we parents can sleep at all, however, as a country, it is likely to be a happier first day of school when, as a country, we separate ourselves from unfettered access to guns and from our self-created gun slingers.

THEN, we can really sleep well.

Will parents, grandparents, Sunday School teachers, coaches et cetera ask the kids they love, into whom they have poured their best, “How was the first day of school?”

Will the kids of all grade levels, start their answer with a youthful version of “I’m glad you asked.” Will they be alive to answer?

Will their mental health allow them a rational answer?

Will this last school shooting be the last school shooting?

In recent research, a majority of Americans (61%) say it is too easy to legally obtain a gun in this country, according to the June 2023 survey. Far fewer (9%) say it is too hard, while another 30% say it’s about right.

Pew Research Center

I choose to believe that the children into whom we pour so much love in the form of resources we will, one day, SOON, pour protection from gun violence with equal fervor.

Smart Bassinets! They seem useful. If you can afford one, you might go for it.

Gun Safety! All kids can and will benefit. America, let’s go for it.

Kimberly