Trip to the Thrift Store
I went to our large thrift store in town, ran by Teen Challenge. My main goal was to find an old suitcase, to serve to protect my bongos, shakers, and hand drums as well as allow for easier transport to gigs and practices. So I went to the back and found what I wanted and headed to the line.
While in line, I had a Mother and Child behind me, child was probably around 5-6 years old, the mother younger than me. The child was a little fidgety and was constantly talking and playing with the little trinkets and crap they usually have lining the checkout lines. The mother was cool and just got him to stand beside her and talk. Then all of a sudden the kid told his mom, “There’s something wrong with me”. The mother kinda laughed and shrugged it off and the kid continued, “There are voices in my head, telling me to do bad things.” “Like what dear?”, the mother asked while kinda laughing nervously. “Telling me to push these racks over and throw this battery across the store”.
Please realize, I’m standing no more than 2 feet in front of this event. Clearly within earshot of everything, and getting a little worried about what else is in the aisle, the little kid’s voices are telling him to abuse. “Mom, they want me to do bad things”, was probably the last thing I heard the kid say, as I pay $1.98 for an elderly suitcase and left the building.
As Bill Cosby and Art Linkletter know, “Kids Say the Darndest Things”. Now I’m not gonna totally rebuke this kids voices as saying he probably picked it up from something he overheard, but he was really serious about getting his mother’s attention. He had a serious tone about what he was telling mom. Mother, no doubt, was worried about me (and probably others) overhearing what the kid was saying and worried that we’d probably think her kid was crazier than a loon.
How would you react to a kid that says, “There are voices in my head, telling me to do bad things.”? Honestly, wouldn’t it scare you?
March 2nd, 2004 at 12:03 pm
That is really freaky! I wonder if kids really do have more problems than they “used to.” Last night I was flipping channels and came across a talk show where the guy was interviewing a 14 year old who had attempted suicide at 8 years old and the mother of a girl who hung herself at 8 years old. It scared the crap out of me — who would even think that an 8 year old could be that depressed?
March 3rd, 2004 at 9:03 am
Not to pimp my work site, but this page came online today:
When Babies Get the Blues
http://12.31.13.198/healthyliving/familyhome/mar0404familyhomebabies.htm
March 3rd, 2004 at 9:03 am
In my previous life (early 90′s/late 80′s), I worked with “at-risk” inner-city youth for the YMCA. I think there has always been depressed and suicidal 8 year olds, some from chemical imbalances, but a majority from abuse.
Long Story
I worked with a 7 year-old, who’s dad was so abusive, he would throw just terrified fits when his mother picked him up. We kept reporting this to DHS, but they didn’t work fast enough. The child told one of my counselors, that he “thought about jumping off the building or jumping in front of a car to escape”….and later told my boss, the general manager, that he wanted to hang himself. The boss called the school counselors. Nothing was done. Two calls into DHS, nothing.
Finally, the kid (who’s probably about 17/18/19 now) got better through medication and the fact that the Mother’s brother from the Bronx came down and ran the father off. (the mother was great, but because of their sect of religion she felt she had to obey the husband and stay with him, no matter the abuse)
We, being after school and summer camp workers, shouldn’t have been the ones to catch this. The kid had problems in school, behaviorally, but was other-wise smart. His school counselors and teachers should have caught this. It’s why I’m a huge supported of school psychiatrists, if they’re allowed to perform their jobs.
He was one of the reasons I became burned-out and immediately got as far away from people as I could. DHS was no help, schools were no help, and it was only an ex-Golden Gloves boxer-uncle that got him settled.
That was probably the worse case, but I remember a couple of suicide discussions that seemed so adult-like, it raised the hair on my arms. Depression in children is rare, but probably not as much as you’ll see in the news or on TV.