GrainneDhu, I respect and honor your opinion, but even with the amount of awareness, there will still be those that are unaware.
In the adjacent communities before the Jessica Ridgeway abduction/murder, as well as in Westminister, CO community where she lived. There were several abduction attempts prior to hers. At least one of these attempts was by Austin Sigg; Jessica's abductor/murderer. Yet the community was not on high alert.
If a recidivist child predator is responsible for these tragic murders. No amount of awareness or vigilance is too much, imo...
I'm a dog trainer so please excuse me if the following seems insensitive; it isn't meant that way.
Puppies are born with immunity from the diseases their mothers are immune to (which includes immunity from vaccination). Until that maternal immunity wears off, vaccination shots don't work because their little bodies already have those immune cells. At some point the maternal immunity fades and then their bodies take over the job of producing immune cells. Unfortunately, there is a window period where maternal immunity is too low to offer reliable protection from disease but too high to trigger their bodies to produce immune cells. This window period lasts about a week and can happen anywhere between 6 and 24 weeks of age.
Research shows that the developmental period during which puppies easily accept novelty is between birth and 12-14 weeks old. Most anything that a puppy has a positive reaction to during this period of time will be accepted throughout the puppy's life as normal. Early socialisation is important for bite control, among other things (fear is by far the most common reason dogs bite).
So, look at those timelines. There's definitely a chance of a gap there, when the puppy needs socialisation experiences but may not be immune to diseases.
There was a time when vets strongly recommended that puppies not be exposed to the world at large until 16 weeks old, due to the fear of disease. But that also means that the puppy is not being exposed to life at large and runs the risk of not being able to accept normal things easily.
So what's a good dog owner to do? Wrap their puppy up in cotton wool and HEPA filtres, do lots of titre testing and not expose the puppy to the world until they are certain the puppy has good immunity? Or expose the puppy to the world, accepting the risk of disease?
Making that decision involves mentally balancing the risk factors. Is being safe from disease more important than learning about the world? Is being less likely to bite a human being more important than protecting the puppy from potential diseases?
There is no single correct answer, it all depends on the individual owner and puppy.
So how does all this apply to raising children? It seems to me that there is a direct correlation. It's natural to want to keep children totally, completely, as close to 100% safe as possible... except that is not always in the child's own best interests. Unlike dogs, children do grow up and eventually have to face the world on their own. So a wise parent realises that they have to release the death grip on their child at some point before the child hits 18 and can legally say "you can't stop me, nyah nyah nyah!" Or the child hits 18, 19, 20, 25, etc, and refuses to leave the parental home out of fear of the outside world.
I've seen what can happen to a kid whose life is too strictly controlled and bound by a parent. My best friend didn't even wait until he was 18 to say "I'm going and you can't stop me!" Then he spent 15 years doing the most dangerous stuff he could find in order to somehow prove to his mother that she couldn't stop him. I'm so grateful one of his early steps was to join the Army, which gave him a sort of safe environment to be a reckless daredevil (door gunner, sniper, etc).
Frankly, if he were my kid, his life would give me heart attacks. He scares me sometimes even now but the only thing I cannot say to him is "please don't do that because it is too risky." All I can say is "can I hold your beer for you?" Yeah, we're rednecks.
Each parent has to decide where the right balance between freedom and the attendant risks vs safety
and the attendant risks lies. And no parent makes the perfect decision every single day.
Usually, the mistakes are not fatal but sometimes they are.
lease:
