Tuesday, June 5, 2007

Spreading mass hysteria

A few days ago, I was reading an article in Parenting magazine. There was a story on sexual predators and keeping your kids safe. Although I am not one of those insane, over protective mothers (okay, I am insane and over protective, but I am not obsessed with it), I do appreciate advice and information on keeping my child safe.

The article gave a link to look up sexual predators in your neighborhood (nsopr). I visited the website and was relieved to find out that my community has zero sex offenders (thank God). However, this does not give me a false sense of security. I realized that many sex offenders move without registering their new address and that potential sex offenders could be living in my neighborhood. So although this information is helpful, it is not a guarantee that my children will play in a sexual-predator-free community.

After I looked up my current community, I looked up the small city where I used to live in Kentucky. There were 26 registered sexual predators! 26! Holy shit, that is a lot of sex offenders in one community. Most of my family still lives in that community - including Bean and her two children. I was thinking of telling her about the list of sex offenders, but I may just be creating unnecessary fear. What do you think? Would you want to know?

Maybe I'll just tell her about the website. That way, if she wants to research the information, she can.

6 comments:

Em said...

That scary shit! There is nothing like that in uk but they want to introduce it. I'm kinda gald i dodnt have access to that info i'd be going mad knowing it.

Amber said...

I would tell her just in case she might recognie a name or something. I just went and looked at my city and there were 8 of them!

Suz said...

Definately, just let her know about the website!

misguidedmommy said...

k so i read this same article and unlike you i totally freaked out and started questioning eveyrone and then i read the one in people about the guy who kidnapped that boy and i started really freaking out and what if someone takes him...and i was finally doing good and now you reminded me and i'm giving everyone the evil eye today

Anonymous said...

There are a lot of sex offenders in my area, too. But mostly they're not child predators. I try not to worry overmuch about strangers. It's the people you know that can be the most dangerous. Most abusers are known by the child. Isn't that fun to know? But yeah, just mention the site, I guess.

kristi said...

I have done this and it does give you some peace of mind.