I keep thinking about the Christmas presents......

[kalli007]

Not in a materialistic way, but that most of these parents had probably already bought, wrapped, and placed Christmas presents under the tree for the little tikes to open on Christmas morning. Bought gifts with love and joy in their heart, perhaps imagining how the excitement that their beloved child would show on Christmas morning, their heart warmed.

These moments imagined by the parents of these innocent victims will never come to pass.......

[Fumesucker]

1. Christmas will be unbearable agony for them for the rest of their lives

[hlthe2b]

2. Yes.... and in direct contrast...

I'm absolutely horrified if this morning's reporting (Michael Isikoff on MSNBC) is correct. That the deceased mother of the shooter had been a avid gun enthusiast collector THAT TOOK BOTH her sons to the shooting range with her--including the youngest that it is now being reported she knew and was concerned regarding his mental illness/instability.

Allowing for a mandatory qualifier, that this reporting could be in error, but if not, this just compounds the tragedy for me.

But, yes, I could not get the image of these 20 families and their compounding heartbreak out of my mind. I give kudos to the State Police for assigning an individual officer to each to try to help them grieve in private, but OMG, I just can not imagine. How would one EVER get the image of totally terrified 5 and six year olds facing a crazed shooter out of your head. I know I won't.

[tawadi]

3. Guess I'm beginning to see why the divorce judge ordered parenting classes

[cynatnite]

4. That is freaking insane!

Taking your mentally unbalanced kid to gun range?

I heard that this kid had mental problems since childhood that everyone was aware of.

If all this is true, she is as much to blame as he is for this horror.

[Honeycombe8]

5. The gifts weren't under the tree, probably. These babies still believed in Santa Claus, most likely.

So heart wrenching.

[LeftofObama]

6. I thought about it a lot last night.

Not just the excitement in getting a present, but the excitement the parents must have felt when they found just the right size, color, etc. of present they had got for their child. The anticipation of looking at the child's face when s/he sees exactly what s/he wanted.

We have a radio station in the town where I live and they play Christmas music 24/7 through the month of December. Sometimes during commercials they have these little kids talking about Christmas traditions at their houses and just listening to their voices always makes me laugh because you can hear the excitement and anticipation in their voices. Last night I heard one of those commercials and started crying because I thought about those poor babies at that school. I don't think I can listen to that station anymore this Christmas season because it is going to remind me of this.

[adigal]

7. I try to not think like this, the pain just gets to be too much

I actually came here to ask, "How do you all deal with this pain?" It is just too much, what our society allows, and the pain we are alle exposed to.

[kalli007]

8. I do not have kids, but have known people who lost young children and I imagine that I would need

serious tranquilizers. Seriously. My mother told me years ago that if something had happened to me she would have to be committed because she would lose it.

[glowing]

9. My son is 8 and in 2nd grade... That's what I think about too.. The presents under the tree, present

coming in from relatives, and the "Santa" surprises still hidden in the closet. The bedrooms left hastily a mess on the way to school, the empty bowl of cereal left in the sink from rushing thru breakfast. I can't imagine going back my house without my kid after sending them there for a day of school (and a week before Winter Break), and never seeing them again.

How many of those families are like my own, "come on, hurry up, or we'll be late"? How many parents left before the kids got up for school without saying, "I love you" because it was early? How many of the children that were killed lived in a "seperated homes" and "Dad's weekend" was coming up? How many parents got into a tiff with their child over a wardrobe choice or were upset at them for some other trivial item in the day to day routine of life?

AND I'm sure everyone of us is thinking how easy it is to get onto a school campus, yet don't want elementary school to become like a jail for the kids to be in? I live in FL. The campus designs are spread out. Kids walk outside their classrooms constantly on their way to art, music, gym. In the AM, parents are walking their kids to the classroom. The school has 1000 kids, I don't know the difference between another parent or a teacher (they don't wear badges). And its FL, a shoot first, ask later type of mentality. Seeing it happen in CT, a blue state with gun laws, makes it even scarier for us in gun-nut, right-wing Rush Land. There are some seriously unstable people living in this state... And if they think Obama is coming after their guns, the "race" violence will probably increase (more Trayvon Martin's I believe).

I could barely sleep last night. All my dreams were about shootings and throwing my body in front of bullets to protect the kids, or thinking of ways to keep them safe in a closet (and I don't teach). Babies. Just babies. We need real health care and mental wellness treated properly and not as a scurge or a "failing". We need jobs and dreams fufilled by being happy in those jobs. We need a better society that is not surrounded with violence. You know, these children were born in a time of war and died before the war has even ended. They were born into an era when flying means pat downs and going thru metal detectors is "normal".

This is a tough one for me. And its going to be tough on kids everywhere in every school for a while. I really hope this next week that the school doesn't practice a lock down. I think it would be really tough and scary for the kids to practice so close to this mass shooting. I am thinking that class room doors need to be bullet proof. A gunman can totally shoot thru a wooden door and figure out the kids are hiding in a corner or a bathroom. And I think a police officer needs to be present at the school and scan ID's before anyone is "buzzed" in... And during arrival and dismissal, posted in various areas around the school, not sitting in their cars trying to catch someone going 25 mph, instead of 20mph.

[PATXgirl]

10. I've had the same thought. Those poor parents.

As a mom, when it hit me the hardest after a local boy was killed in a car wreck, is when I was doing my son's laundry. I was standing there loading the washer and as I picked up one of my son's shirts, all I could think of was that other mom doing the same thing

But my son would wear his shirt again. Hers never would.