The love of a mother?

Being the youngest of 8 (yup, 8) kids, I was raise to believe that a) a mother's love is eternal and unwavering, and b) that a parent should always want to spend as much time with their child/ren as possible. But more and more often I am finding these things to be untrue and I can't quite make sense of it.

Yesterday morning my husband, baby, and I had breakfast at our favorite little cafe downtown. The front windows face Main Street and the side of the cafe is on another street creating, of course, an intersection. I'm sitting at a table by the widow eating my scrumptious breakfast burrito and watching out the window as cars drive and people walk by. I see two people waiting at the cross walk on the side street talking to one another. Then, from the front windows I see a little girl, no more than 3 or 4 years old, run down the sidewalk, (watching not where she's going, but behind her) toward the intersection ALONE!!! The two people at the corner had to reach down to stop her from running into the road before I see who I assume to be her mother, mosey past the windows laughing! I'm sorry, but a child about to run into the road is not funny! How could a mother who loves a child so strongly not be more careful on a busy street?

Today I was talking to my mom, who, as some people may know, runs an at home day care. She had an interview last week with a woman from North Adams, MA who had just moved into her town. I had arrived at her house while the interview was taking place and noticed that there were no car seats in her car. So I thought that maybe she hadn't brought the children with her. I walked inside to see not 1, but 2 unfamiliar little faces. So this woman had brought her 3 and 5 year old in the car without car seats! To make matters worse, it was a brand new Subaru wagon that she was driving, so she can't say she couldn't afford the car seats!

As I mentioned, I was talking to my mom today and she had to get one of the new children ready to go to preschool. She said that the bus picks the child up for preschool because she has an IEP for a speech delay. I didn't think anything of it until my mom mentioned that the child's mother doesn't have a job. At this point I'm totally confused.
"Why is she bringing her child to day care if she isn't working?" I asked. "And if she isn't working, why do your taxes have to pay for a bus to bring her to preschool?" I thought, before now, that mothers wanted to spend time with their children when they were able to. So why was this woman not wanting to spend time with her child when she has all morning to do so?!?!
Then, in talking to my mom, I find out that this woman moved to NH because MA would no longer give her welfare money!!! (This may be irrelevant to my rant, but it still pissed me off.)

I didn't leave my parents house until later tonight, after the sun had already gone down and it was pretty dark outside. I was driving up a main road in town. As I approached a stop sign at a small but busy intersection I see a woman in a long black coat pushing a stroller and I think "she should have a flash light, or at least lighter colored clothing at this time of night." Just as I stopped at the stop sign I realize that there is another child with her, in dark clothing, running toward the intersection! At that point I was so frustrated with other people that I just turned the music up a notch and forced it out of my head. I cannot worry about every child all the time! I was already going to go crazy just worrying about the ones I know and love. I cannot control every parent and I cannot change their behaviors or turn off their ignorances (is that a word? it is now).

What I can do is love my child and the children that are in my life. I can be a safe and careful driver. And I can only pray for all of the other children who are being raised by parents who are too self-involved to notice when their child may be in harms way.