I recently read articles about a father in Houston, Dennis Ray Driver, who fell asleep with his 8-month-old son lying on his chest. When the Driver woke up, his son wasn’t breathing. Before Driver fell asleep, he had been chopping up cocaine. His son apparently sucked Driver’s thumb and overdosed on the cocaine. Even a trace amount of cocaine can can be lethal for infants. Driver’s son died the next day.

The rest of the story is that Driver had six previous convictions related to cocaine and was free on bail on a cocaine possession charge. Driver never intentionally hurt his son, but he couldn’t create a safe environment for himself much less take care of his son. Driver maintained that he was innocent throughout the trial for his son’s death, but was sentenced to life in prison.

In my counseling practice, I work with children who have been removed from their parents’ care because their parents cannot keep them safe and meet their needs. Frequently, I have to describe for children the characteristics of a safe family because they have not ever lived in a family that is safe. In a safe family, the adults protect the children and meet their needs. In a safe family, no one hits, says ugly things, or engages in sexual activities with children. In a safe family, the grownups love and nurture their children and recognize that their children are fragile in many ways.

Many of us have grown up in safe families and take it for granted that children today are growing up in similar safe environments. Regrettably, many children live in homes with parents like Dennis Driver–parents who need help managing their own lives before they can provide a safe home for children.

I pray that God will provide safety for those children who are fragile and living in dangerous situations and that he will open my eyes to see the needs around me and help me find ways to make the world a safer place for children.

This entry was posted on Saturday, July 5th, 2008 at 9:22 am and is filed under Blog. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.