I just got a message from my son's school. They let us know they did a practice lock down drill. While I am thrilled and relieved that this was a) just a practice and b) they will know what to do in an emergency, it hurts my heart that a child should NEED to know these things. Being a parent is scary stuff. When my parents were kids, all they did were practice drills in case they got bombed. It's scary to think we've graduated to a world were people will come into our schools and harm our children. I don't want that world for my children. I don't like living in a world where I need to teach them to say no to drugs, to hide if a scary person comes into their school with a gun or to scream and make a scene if someone tries to hurt them or take them. I don't like having to teach them that strangers are dangerous. Little by little, their childhoods are taken away from them. I can only hope and pray they will never need the information they have.