Do you really know??

While most of us would say that protecting our children is our number one priority and we would also be the same parents that would rattle off a huge list of things that we do to protect our children.

• We buy them toys that are age appropriate.
• They always wear their bike helmets.
• We never let them walk alone to school.
• When they are little we cut their food into tiny chewable pieces.
• No going near the water without swimmies.
• We put gates on our stairs, around our pool, and anywhere else they can wander into.
• They know how to dial 911 and not to talk to strangers.

We do a lot, moms.  We worry and stew and protect our babies the only way we can - with everything in our hearts.  We pray, fuss, and make ourselves sick worrying about their every move.  Now here's the issue...what if the real scary stuff lands in your own backyard? 
While what I am about to reveal had absolutely NOTHING to do with my child and living several states away had no effect on our life, it has brought up some interesting dilemmas within my world.
I grew up in Ohio.  A small town along the great Lake Erie.  I grew up riding bikes, catching fire flies, and making snowmen.  It was the ideal small town life and I felt safe.  In high school I formed a group of fantastic friends.  We were geeky, awkward, but all in all rather happy that way.  We enjoyed the theater that most of us volunteered at, we went down to the strip at night and played putt putt, and we had fun traveling with the choir.  It was high school.  One of these friends, whose name I will not reveal, was right there with us.  He came from a wonderful family.  His father was a well known business owner, his mother was a nurse, and a sister that was well loved.  He was just like the rest of us and used to throw the best clean parties in town!  
So now let's fast forward the decade+ since I last saw him, drifting apart which is all too common with high school friends.  We met back up on Facebook and began chatting.  It was great to remember the good old days, the same that I do with all of my high school friends on there.  Last week out of the blue another friend popped me up and asked if I had heard the news...he had been arrested as a child sexual predator!
To say I was shocked, grossed out, confused is to put it mildly.  I went into a funk.  I was depressed and felt so violated.  Here he was a "friend" on Facebook and looking at pictures of MY son.  (I should note here that his victim was my son's age)  It made me sick.  I was so angry at him and saddened for the lives he seemingly didn't care that he destroyed.  How could I not see it?  Wouldn't my "mom" radar have gone buck wild?  I just didn't see it coming.  That is not entirely true.  I will be honest.  Looking back there are parts of his personality that now make it perfectly logical, however none of us saw it at the time.  He also posted a picture not too long ago that made me uncomfortable.  It was actually nothing bad at all.  It was him and a boy at a baseball game.  Being a member of the Big Brother organization, this is perfectly logical for him to have done.  But it made me edgy.  I couldn't explain it at the time but I just didn't like the picture.  How that picture haunts me now.
Like a lot of people in this world I thought predators were guys that came from broken homes, sick men that had been abused themselves, or even worse those disgusting old men in positions of authority.  Not a thirty three year old man, owning his own business, that came from a good home!  There was no way it was true.  Yes, disbelief was right there with the rest of it.  They had the wrong man, someone had framed him, oh I thought it all!  But as the news started to spread and information started to get leaked out, there was no denying the truth - I had personally known a sexual predator.  
Now anyone that knows what type of mother I am knows that I NEVER EVER let my son be alone with anyone that is not directly related to us.  I don't have sitters that I haven't known for years.  Which leads me to my concern - would I have trusted my friend?  I had known him since my early teens, had spent COUNTLESS hours hanging out, and I thought I knew him.  My mother told me that I absolutely would not have left my son alone with him.  She knows me and knows that I wouldn't have allowed it to happen.  But still it nags at me.  It sits there like this little flea that keeps eating away at the confidence I have in my parenting.   It bothers me, even though I am several states away and my son is safe and sound.  There's something unnerving about it all and I'm not sure I can shake the feeling. 
So, here's the dilemma.  With the world as a whole who do you trust?  Who do you feel safe leaving your children with?  Is there really anything we can do to fool proof our child's safety?  Or is it just luck of the draw?