There are three news stories coming out of Wisconsin today that have me angry and sickened.

I have heard all of these stories in the last twelve hours and it makes me wonder about society.

The first story is the most disturbing. A three and a half month old girl was checked into the hospital yesterday and during an exam the doctors discovered two skull fractures. They called the police and social services and the baby’s father was arrested.

Child abuse of any kind is horrible, but child abuse of an infant just really angers me. What is it that this infant did that anger this fathered so much that he felt the need to abuse her? Did she cry? Did she spit up? Did she coo or babble or make noise? And what in the world did he do to this tiny child that resulted in TWO skull fractures?

I totally get being frustrated with an infant and not being able to soothe them, but abusing that child never crossed my mind. I fully remember the first time Mackenzie had vaccinations and she cried until 3:00 AM and the only way I could get her to sleep was to put her in the baby swing and she slept there while I slept on the couch. All I wanted was to go to sleep, but it never occurred to me to do something that would hurt her or result in these types of injuries. I was near tears at the time from exhaustion, but harming my precious baby was never a consideration.

What goes through the mind of a parent to make them want to harm an infant? This child knows no other way to communicate and cannot even begin to fight back. Infants are truly helpless. My friend, Ruby, parents children who have been harmed as infants. I think she’s an amazing mother and she can tell you firsthand how this abuse affects these children.

Another story is just as shocking and just plain stupid. A mother in Milwaukee, along with two of her friends, took camera phone video of trying to teach her two year old son how to smoke marijuana. She can even be heard on the video saying that she hopes she doesn’t get in trouble for this. Wouldn’t that be a clue right there that this is a bad choice? The video surfaced somehow, the little boy was tested and no drugs were found in his system. It must be simply by the grace of God because the three adults are giving instructions to the child on how to hold the joint and how to inhale. Their intention was to get this child high. Sadly, this mother still has custody of the child and is being required to take parenting classes. Sorry, as far as I’m concerned we have physical proof that she willingly did this to her child and knew it was wrong but made no attempt to stop it.

The final story comes out of the Oshkosh area. A mother killed her two year old son because voices in her head told her to. To make this matter even worse, or more complicated, she is an employee of the county that it happened in, so the case is under investigation by the neighboring county. If this mother’s obvious mental illness is eventually diagnosed and treated, she is going to have to live with she did to her child, and will that cause more mental illness? The story does not indicate if there are other children in the house, or what involvement the father has in the little boy’s life.

Stories like this anger me and depress me. They are far too frequent, and far too familiar. Most of the time we aren’t shocked. We hear the stories too often. Quite frankly I get depressed at the enormity of the abuse that goes on. I’m not sure how to stop it, but there has to be a way.

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