Ghetto Immune

Remember my decision to be "Ghetto Woman" instead of trying to compete with "Pioneer Woman?"  Who can compete anyway?  She's just awesome.

Well, the ghetto lives on, and we continue to reside within.  I might be exaggerating a bit, as it's not really the ghetto, but there are a few homes that make me nervous.  (Obvious drug deals, late night heavy traffic coming and going, frequent visits from police, etc.).

The other day I was out watering my front flowers, which sadly are dying due to the ridiculous heat in June we're experiencing.  Anyway, I could hear a police search helicopter nearby.  You always know it isn't life-flight, because it doesn't just head in one direction, it keeps circling.  We live close enough to some shopping centers, that it isn't totally uncommon for one to be circling at night in search for a thief.  This was the middle of the day.  

You know you're immune to it all though when you just keep watering your flowers and the neighbors pull up and wave.  

Then I got a call from Joe while I was still out there saying there was a police standoff with some guy less than a mile away, who had fired a bunch of shots and carjacked someone.  OK, that was enough for me to say, "Kids, let's go inside."  

They, unfortunately heard my conversation and then needed to know all about the "bad guy."  For Norah, she was quite disturbed to know that "bad guys" were actually real.  They enjoy reading books with their Daddy like, "The Hobbit," "Narnia," etc.  She can handle those "bad buys" because they're fictitious.  But, to have to reconcile that there are people who make evil decisions and put others in harms way, that was a whole other ball game.

She said, "Mommy, kids really don't like the real scary things like, bears...lions...and real bad guys."  

Later at dinner the kids needed resolution for this story.   How much do you tell them?  The reality was, he had kidnapped someone, was in a police chase, pulled into Wal-Mart and fired about 15 shots in the store (not harming anyone), and then walked out and tried to carjack some foreign-exchange student from China, who refused to give him his car.  "Bad Guy" then shot the man and killed him in his car.  At this point the police are closing in.  He carjacks another family...lets them get out at least, and then tries to drive off firing shots in the air, and was subsequently shot and killed in the car by the police.

Maybe a bit much for the kids??

Norah's getting increasingly anxious at the thought of a real bad-guy possibly wandering around, despite my assurance without details that "he's no longer a threat, Honey."  We're sitting at dinner discussing and she looks at Joe and says, "You should shoot him wif yo' guunn."  

We don't call her "No-Mercy-Noni" for nothing!

Disclaimer:  Joe doesn't go wielding any guns around for the children to see, nor talk about such things.

Needless to say, when Joe assured her the police had already done that, she dropped it and never talked about it again.  

Life in the Ghetto...

It's complicated at times.