Rituals

Every night I check the lock on her bedroom window. Every night. I usually do it after the girls are asleep; my wife and my daughter. I have always been a perimeter checker, before bed I check all of the doors. But now, that she is here, I check windows too.

There are stories, out there. Bad ones. Parents get up in the morning and their child is gone. I can’t remember if I checked her window as religiously before these stories became so prolific. I’d like to think so. These parents, did they do a perimeter check? Did they check windows? I am not asking because I feel that they are at blame. I am asking because I want to know if there is something else I need to do, something that I am not thinking of.

Did our parents have it this bad? We have all seen the movies and commercials where the doting parents look in upon their sleeping child through a partially open door by the light in the hallway. I guess at one time this was enough, just knowing that your kids were in bed.

But in today’s world where monsters live next door, I don’t know if anything can be enough.