Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:In all seriousness, stop watching the news. 24 hour news is focused on ratings and attracting viewers. They love to focus on horrible things and sensationalize them. I stopped watching the news almost 3 years ago and my anxiety levels decreased substantially, particularly my fear of horrible things happening to my kids. Now I read the news online but I don’t click on things I don’t want to read about. I generally know what happened but don’t know every detail. This approach has changed my life. I highly recommend it.

So OP should bury her head in the sand?

Ridiculous advice. Do you donate to the NRA by chance? What a joke of a response.

I would be willing to bet the OP watches a LOT of 24 hour news. You will have anxiety if you constantly expose your brain to things that create fears.
I used to watch CNN all the time and thought about school shootings and terrorist attacks constantly. I stopped watching the news after Trump was elected because I can’t stand seeing his face and hearing his voice. I didn’t want my life to focus on all the stupid stuff that Trump does everyday. Now that I don’t watch the news, the benefit is reduced anxiety on all the other horrible stuff going on in the world. I am not burying my head in the sand, I choose to focus my life on happier things.

I only get news from online sources like the NYTimes and Slate. We don’t even have cable.

Join the PTA and make sure you school is at least as secure with both systems and resource officers as the typical office workplace.

Anonymous wrote:Two police cars raced by me a few days ago when I was on my way to pick up DS at preK. They were headed for his school. My heart started beating fast and my stomach went into knots. When I got closer to his school, I could see the police cars speeding past with sirens blaring. My eyes filled with tears.

Your fear is real and justified, OP. Our children are being mowed down in their classrooms. Why do we think it will always happen to someone else’s child and not ours?

Work, volunteer, donate and vote for a change to our lax gun laws now. I have been taking action since Sandy Hook and it does help. But there are still those moments like the other day.

Thirty years ago a police car racing past a parent toward a school would never have brought the thought of a mass shooting into the parent’s mind.

Make no mistake - things have gotten so much worse in our country. This is not your imagination or paranoia - this is the reality of our American life.

Anonymous wrote:Move to another country. We are lost here in the US.

We are only lost if people like you give up. You should move because we don't need quitters.

Two police cars raced by me a few days ago when I was on my way to pick up DS at preK. They were headed for his school. My heart started beating fast and my stomach went into knots. When I got closer to his school, I could see the police cars speeding past with sirens blaring. My eyes filled with tears.

Your fear is real and justified, OP. Our children are being mowed down in their classrooms. Why do we think it will always happen to someone else’s child and not ours?

Work, volunteer, donate and vote for a change to our lax gun laws now. I have been taking action since Sandy Hook and it does help. But there are still those moments like the other day.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kids are in public but yes I agree send them to private if you don’t want to worry. My eldest is graduating and what a relief.

Why is private safe?

My DD has a locked campus with security guards. More security than our local public school can afford.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:In all seriousness, stop watching the news. 24 hour news is focused on ratings and attracting viewers. They love to focus on horrible things and sensationalize them. I stopped watching the news almost 3 years ago and my anxiety levels decreased substantially, particularly my fear of horrible things happening to my kids. Now I read the news online but I don’t click on things I don’t want to read about. I generally know what happened but don’t know every detail. This approach has changed my life. I highly recommend it.

So OP should bury her head in the sand?

Ridiculous advice. Do you donate to the NRA by chance? What a joke of a response.

I would be willing to bet the OP watches a LOT of 24 hour news. You will have anxiety if you constantly expose your brain to things that create fears.
I used to watch CNN all the time and thought about school shootings and terrorist attacks constantly. I stopped watching the news after Trump was elected because I can’t stand seeing his face and hearing his voice. I didn’t want my life to focus on all the stupid stuff that Trump does everyday. Now that I don’t watch the news, the benefit is reduced anxiety on all the other horrible stuff going on in the world. I am not burying my head in the sand, I choose to focus my life on happier things.

Media blackout on all related stories. It doesn’t help anything for you to know details.

Someone have posted this elsewhere on the DCUM. It is also a very good-different way to look at things.
Michael J. Fox: "Don't spend a lot of time imagining the worst-case scenario. It rarely goes down as you imagine it will. And if by some fluke it does, you will have lived it twice."

https://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/15/802066.page

Life is deadly dangerous. It is not safe, nothing is. NOTHING. So you have a choice to obsess about everything or nothing.
Thins will happen and find you no matter where you hide. If things are meant to be they will if not they won't.
How often do we hear about people who survived one disaster or another only to die in some weird way later?
It is because every person has time and it obsessing about anything like that does not have an purpose other then stress you out and turn you into a nerve wreck. No matter what you do and where you go, if something is bound to happen it will.
No matter what a disaster if you are meant to be saved, you will. We all are like little tinny inconsequential specks of dust in the wind. Imagine the wind.. imagine us. Don't let the fear dictate your life. You are a strong person, You are a parent. Do all you can do to protect your child and leave the rest to the higher power. We all can only do that much.

Sometimes when the problems seem to be too big, I like to bring back some perspective to the problem by watching this short YouTube Video. Seemingly irrelevant.. it is about size of things in Space. Watch it, it is very helpful and very mind settling. After watching it, many problems seem much smaller then they appeared in the first place. Peace!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i93Z7zljQ7I

Anonymous wrote:Channel your anger and anxiety into action. Volunteer for Moms Demand Action, or any other number of anti-NRA, anti-child-shooting organizations.

Kids are going to keep getting killed in schools as long as the NRA and gun CEOs make money off selling guns, and as long as the wealthy Republican donors see political advantage by donating to the NRA and other gun identity politics organizations. Only political action is going to fix this problem. And being proactive, doing something, is one way to feel better.

Or you could actually do something for your community like become a police officer or firefighter. But that would be more difficult than protesting. The poster above is quite naive about solutions to a problem that is quite complicated. I would also recommend reducing the amount of time you spend on news apps, sites, etc. If the media reported on deaths in a way that is representative of the real world, we would all be afraid of dying from the flu or a car accident.

Anonymous wrote:In all seriousness, stop watching the news. 24 hour news is focused on ratings and attracting viewers. They love to focus on horrible things and sensationalize them. I stopped watching the news almost 3 years ago and my anxiety levels decreased substantially, particularly my fear of horrible things happening to my kids. Now I read the news online but I don’t click on things I don’t want to read about. I generally know what happened but don’t know every detail. This approach has changed my life. I highly recommend it.

So OP should bury her head in the sand?

Ridiculous advice. Do you donate to the NRA by chance? What a joke of a response.

Channel your anger and anxiety into action. Volunteer for Moms Demand Action, or any other number of anti-NRA, anti-child-shooting organizations.

Kids are going to keep getting killed in schools as long as the NRA and gun CEOs make money off selling guns, and as long as the wealthy Republican donors see political advantage by donating to the NRA and other gun identity politics organizations. Only political action is going to fix this problem. And being proactive, doing something, is one way to feel better.

Anonymous wrote:Get help for your anxiety. The odds of this happening are so low.

+1. As has already been posted, your kid’s chances of dying in a car accident are exponentially higher than a school shooting.

Anonymous wrote:

You should educate yourself about risk. But then you might have panic attacks about getting in a car or falling down your own stairs... so perhaps get into mindfulness instead

I meditate and do yoga and am very calm about everything but this.