Alicia: you know, mom, you don't have to take me to school everyday, I know the way, I can go on my own...
Me: Really?... Tell me, what if you're walking to school and someone driving a car tells you he can drive you?
Alicia: I'd go in the car and tell him where the school is!
she says that smiling, believing that her answer made her pass my "test", but I tell her never to do that, that she should never accept a ride from somebody outside the family. She looks confused, in part because she doesn't understand what some bad person might possibly want from her.
I'm writing this because Buffalo has a post that made me think about something that happened in my childhood. My sister (she was 7 or 8 at the time) once accepted a ride from a man we knew. Not that he was a friend, but he was a familiar face. She started to get scared when she noticed he wasn't driving towards our house. At some point he stopped and kissed her on the lips, saying they could pretend they were boyfriend and girlfriend. My sister was too scared to react. He continued driving and when he stopped again (a traffic light I suppose) she opened the door, jumped out and started running. When she told my mother, she didn't go to the police. Instead, she found out where the man lived and paid a visit. His wife opened the door and my mother demanded to see him. something in my mom's face told her this was serious, and she invited her in but she just told her to get her husband. When he came at the door he barely had time to say anything. My mother slapped him hard in the face, told his wife what he had done and told him she was going to the police. He begged her not to do it and swore he'd never do that to her daughters or any other kid. God knows if he kept his word... but I remember my sister was proud of her mom that night. We all were, even though that's not the type of behavior my dad approves. He would have followed the rational, legal way and gone to the police, but my mom's always been the temperamental one. Do you think she did the right thing? I believe she should have slapped him AND gone to the police, but that was about 34 years ago...
skip to main |
skip to sidebar
5 comments:
What a wonderful post to share and yes, all children out there must be aware of the possibilities of this happening. It is so sad that this happens so much and more and more young people are hurt and killed by accepting rides from strangers and it is important that we teach them at a young age, such as what you are doing, not to talk to strangers. We must come forward to the police if anything is suspicious because that is what the police is there for. If we let one bad person go after touching one innocent child, he could hurt hundreds more or even kill more and we do not need that guilt on our conscience. We must help out.
You make a very good post here.
I hope you are doing well, I hope your husband is well also :)
~Michele~
Rocky Mountain Retreat
Your Mom certainly did right - at least in my eyes. I do think the police should have been notified also. From what I understand once someone "goes after" a child there is a very high probablility they will do it again regardless of the circumstances.
That was really brave of your mother. I hope I would have done the same thing and sure, it sounds easy to go to the police... but I imagine it would also be difficult (especially for your young sister) to have to go through explaining the horrible things that happened and having it replay over and over. I feel so sorry for people in that position... whether children or adults, but especially children.
Did your mother ever say why she didn't go to the police?
I wonder what his wife did after your Mom paid him a visit, I would say that was pretty brave of her. Sounds like something my Mom would have done.
I remember that my sister and I were approached when younger by a car driving down our road, he stopped and then asked us where something was, we knew what he was talking about so we proceeded to tell him, he said he couldn't hear us and wanted us to come up to his window, my sister and I told him to kiss our a** and hightailed it back to our house as fast as we could pedal our bikes. Sheez, I haven't thought about that in a really long time..........Scary to think what can happen in those situations, huh?!
Ayla, I have no idea. She probably thought she could handle this alone. I think this was the mentality then...
Post a Comment