Thursday 10 April 2014

Incident every working mother should read !!

By the end of this post, you would agree that the post justifies the title I have given. I got to know about this shocking incident a few days back from a friend and I have been telling this incident to a lot of people and have wanted to write about this since long.

This is a true incident. Both husband and wife were working and had a two year old baby. Husband’s and wife’s family stayed in some other state. Since none of the families could come and take care of the baby, they appointed a caretaker woman which is a pretty normal practice in a lot of households where no family members are available to look after the children of working parents. The woman came everyday in morning before the parents left and stayed with the baby till they returned. This continued for a few months. The baby seemed to have adjusted with the caretaker and things were running absolutely smooth.

One day, the mother came back from office unannounced by lunch time. She saw that her baby was fast asleep and asked the caretaker when had she slept to which she replied that the baby had gone to sleep after her breakfast. The mother asked the caretaker to take a leave since she was now available at home.

When the baby did not wake up even after five-six hours, she panicked and called her husband. They took the baby to the hospital where his blood samples were taken. And when the reports arrived, its revelations shocked everybody. The doctor told them that the baby’s blood had traces of sedatives/ sleeping pills.

The caretaker mixed sedatives in baby’s food so that the baby would fall asleep all during her stay not causing her any trouble and she could while away her time without any efforts to actually look after the baby.

I am not much aware if the parents registered a police complaint and whether the caretaker woman was caught or not. But I just hope they did and the woman was caught.

I am not a mother, but just listening about a child being drugged to sleep sent chills down my spine. I can just imagine how the mother would have coped with this. Had it not been for the coincidence of her returning early, she would have never known about this cruel act and it would have continued damaging the child’s body to God knows what extent. I am not sure about the medical effects the sleeping pills could have on a child, but the very fact that they were being used on a child was a shocker to me.  

Just thought of sharing this incident. It might just help someone.



This post is written as a part of April A to Z Challenge 2014 under Non-Themed category. I am doing two posts for this Challenge and Themed posts can be found here.


26 comments:

  1. Oh my God ! this thing really shocked me .
    Even I am a child of working parents and have spent my entire childhood with people other than my family. Sometimes it used to get very disturbing . But luckily I had a maid who took good care of me . But this thing ...it's just too bad .

    Very few people understand but that's how is the childhood of working parents....when there's no one to look after from the family :(

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Seriously Sushree, it is very difficult. And one of the most difficult things for working parents - to leave their child in the hands of others.

      Delete
  2. I have heard such stories as well and they are disturbing. Even the beggars on the road give sedatives to the small children they hold so that they would sleep all day and yet look miserable. Why can't we leave the children alone..

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yes, I have heard about these beggar stories too. God knows, how can people be so cruel to innocent children!

      Delete
  3. Such incidents happen very commonly. I remember reading about an incident where the 'caretaker' used the child for begging on the streets. The mother just like the one in the case you mentioned above decided to come home early one day and saw her own child on a traffic signal!! It must be soo shocking and traumatic for the family! A family member should be there with the child always and the caretaker can help/assist in their presence!!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Oh God, how shocking it would have been for the mother. Yes, keeping a family member with the child is the only solution I guess!

      Delete
  4. It is painful, Jyotsna. I can't thank you enough for sharing this with me. I'm a working mother myself, I know how difficult it must have been for the mom. God !

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It sure would have been painful. Its one of the most difficult things for a mother to do, I guess - leaving their children in somebody else's care!

      Delete
  5. I have heard about such incidents where children were given high doses of cough syrup so that they sleep. It's really horrible and as I have a daughter who I leave behind in day care, I shudder to hear about such incidents.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Cough Syrup - oh god !! I seriously dont understand how can people be so cruel to do this do children. May God give them sanity to not do such deeds to small children.

      Delete
  6. This is really shocking ... a classic example of trust being used in such a wrong manner ... thanks for bringing this up.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Oh this is freaky! Exactly why I believe that it is up to the parents to care for their child and no one other.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It is freaky Soumya. Yeah, I guess, with such incidents on the rise, that's the only way to bring up your child safely.

      Delete
  8. Ohh my this is horrible!! People just can't be trusted!!

    ReplyDelete
  9. Oh God! That is very shocking!
    I am going to tell this to a lot of people and spread awareness!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks dear. Yes this incident needs to be spread.

      Delete
  10. WHAT INSANITY!!
    How can people look at themselves in the mirror after doing such horrible deeds!
    This gave me shudders! The poor little baby!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Wow. Great post, but ungodly disturbing story. I hope the parents turned this nutcase in and she got her due, plus will never be able to do this to another child.
      Deb@ http://debioneille.blogspot.com

      Delete
    2. Exactly, Red. Its bloody insane!! Devils in disguise such people can be called.

      Delete
  11. Oops. I put my comment in the reply section. :-(
    Deb@ http://debioneille.blogspot.com

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Debi, I really hope too that this woman was behind bars. Thanks for dropping by :)

      Delete
  12. Sadly, this is true. And the unfortunate outcome is that this spells doom for caretakers everywhere and sends chills down a working mother's spine. It's a good thing that the lady was back in time to take control before things got worse.

    ~Shailaja's latest A~Z post

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. You are right Shailaja. Thankfully, the mother came and things were under control.

      Delete
  13. The moment I heard about this incident from someone, I knew I had to write about it to let people know. It just might help somebody!!

    ReplyDelete

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...