MomsRising: When imaginary goblins aren't the only worries for kids

It’s getting to be a spooky time of year! While my kids have a blast pretending there’s monsters in the closet or vampires lurking outside in the bushes, I’m grateful for this time in their lives when the scariest things they have to worry about are imaginary goblins.

Too many days I open the paper only to wish I’d never looked. Since becoming a mother, it seems I’m much more aware of the pain and suffering of kids everywhere. Whether it’s hunger, illness, abuse or lack of opportunity, it breaks my heart when I read of the challenges children face. There’s something very universal about the experience of being a mother. You can imagine only too well the fear and stress of a mother in a difficult situation trying to do the very best for her kids.

While the Halloween-centered fears of my children live only in their imaginations, these nightmares are all too real. And with the state budget deficit looming, the programs that try to address these problems are in grave danger.

When I was a kid, the Ghostbusters movie was all the rage with its signature line, “Who ya gonna call?” In trying times like these, our state’s kids are calling on all of us to make the bad things go away.

While I can’t make all the boogeymen go away, by speaking out for kids in this year’s budget process I can do my part to ensure that imaginary monsters are the worst North Carolina's kids will have to face. I hope you’ll join me!