AN: After the horrific shooting in Texas, I wanted to dedicate a Loud House fic to the victims and all the children killed by guns in this country. The news accounts and the pictures of the victims are enough to make anyone's heart break, especially a parent. If the Loud parents were real, they'd certainly be no exception to that—and since Rita has a parenting column in-universe, she has a platform to express her feelings. So in this fic, I imagine what her column would likely say after the events in Uvalde.
Warning: as should be obvious, this deals with serious subject matter, particularly violence against children. Nothing we haven't seen in the news already, but if it bothers you or you just want a break from the ugliness, you may want to skip this one. Also, I don't own Loud House.
HUG YOUR BABIES
By Rita Loud
I still remember exactly where I was when I heard about the shooting in Sandy Hook.
I had just put my then-two-year-old son Lincoln down for his nap. At the time, he was the youngest of my children, and his sisters were all at either school or daycare. The house was actually quiet for once, so I figured I had some time to take a break and relax. I turned on the TV, planning to watch a soap opera—and immediately regretted that decision. The show had been preempted with a news broadcast about a school shooting in Connecticut.
I had heard about high schools getting attacked in the news before, but I had assumed that worrying about that was some time away. My oldest was only eight and in elementary school. Surely there wasn't—but wait. This was an elementary school that was attacked? And first-graders had been killed?
I broke down sobbing right there in the living room. I know how precious my babies are to me, and the children in that school were every bit as precious to their own parents. As a mom, my heart was shattered for those poor families. And it gave me a feeling of fear I had never felt before—a fear that my own children weren't safe at their own school. That some monster could attack them and take them away from me.
Sadly, it seems not much has changed. Once again, there's been a mass shooting at an elementary school, this time in Texas. Watching the news, I had flashbacks of Sandy Hook and wondered how in the world we've gone ten years without finding a solution to this terrible problem? And how many more years will this continue?
Today, Lincoln is twelve. I assumed he'd be upset about the news, and he did seem sad about it—but he didn't seem worried about it happening here. "Don't worry, Mom," he told me. "We have drills for this. If it happens I'll be fine." (That boy seriously thinks he's invincible. I dread his teenage years.) His sisters, both older and younger, seemed unconcerned as well. I didn't understand—until it hit me that this has been their reality their whole lives. Even my oldest was born several years after the Columbine High attack. They've always taken it for granted that school shootings are a possibility, just as I grew up in the shadow of stranger danger.
It breaks my heart to know that this is what they have to deal with. What kind of a society are we living in to put our children through this? And how long is it going to continue? Will my youngest, now two years old just as Lincoln was during Sandy Hook, still have to worry about this when she's in high school? Will her children? Her children's children?
But the worst thing about this, at least for me, is just how scared it makes me. As a mother, I would gladly fight like an Amazon warrior queen to keep my babies safe. But news stories like this serve as a sad reminder that, much as I would like to, I can't protect them from everything.
That doesn't just go for mass shootings, of course. I hate to say this, but as a mom of girls I live with the possibility that my daughters could get raped. Before my oldest left for college we had "the talk" about how to protect herself from sexual assault, and I reminded her of all the precautions she needed to keep in mind—don't go out alone at night, don't leave drinks unattended, keys between fingers, etc. Thankfully, she's more sensible than her brother, and she's pretty careful. I still worry as a mom, though.
But these school attacks are different. Grade-schoolers shouldn't have to be prepared to survive men with guns. We as parents shouldn't have to worry that our children could come under attack at school. And schools shouldn't have to have school-shooter drills the way they do fire drills. But, as much as I hate it, that's our reality.
So all I can say is, hug your babies extra hard. Say "I love you" to them every chance you can get. Because we really aren't guaranteed tomorrow. And—this is terrifying, but true—neither are they. As parents, we'd all love to keep our kids in a bubble and protect them from the world's horrors, but we can't. What we can do is love them fiercely, fight for their interests, and teach them to be good human beings. If enough parents do that, maybe our society will become a better place.
