Freedom to Choose

Recently there was a measles outbreak in Disneyland, California, leading to more cases of measles in January of 2015 then there are normally seen in an average year.

This measles outbreak lead to another outbreak in social media of comments, photos and blog posts bashing those who have made the choice to not vaccinate their children.

Every time I see these posts my heart hurts. We live in an incredible country. There are men and women who gave their lives so that each one of us had the freedom to make our own choices.  Those same people fought and died so we have the freedom to speak freely. Yet it seems we are using that freedom to judge, attack and accuse others instead of valuing our ability to make that choice and speak our mind.

I am a mom, first and last. From the moment that tiny being moved inside me I would have died for him. I'm sure all of you feel the same about your children. The mama bear protecting her cub. The papa penguin caring for his own very special egg.

I realize that every choice you make, every choice I make, is about wanting what's best for those small beings entrusted to our care.

So I have to wonder why are we showing so much hate? Why are such foul things being said about other parents who want the exact same thing we do? What are we teaching our children when we post and share these negative accusatory posts?

I understand that each one of us share the same need to do right by and protect our children. But every parent makes different choices.

Some homeschool, some send their kids to public school or to private school.

Some feed their kids Kool aid, some feed their kids organic fruit juice.

Some go to church, some don't.

Some go to work, some stay home.

Some cook dinner, some pick it up at McDonald's.

Some read stories to their kids, others watch TV with them.

Some vaccinate, others don't.

Unless you know someone really well, you don't know which of those choices they've made and why. Judging someone for any one of those choices is not fair because each one of us is doing the best we can, the best we know how for our littles.

I wish, instead of spreading hatefulness, we could teach our children to accept everyone's choices as equally valid. What is right for one family is not right for another. We all must do as we see fit in taking care of our babies and respect the choices other people make.