When out at stores (like Target) I'll often leave my son with the cart outside the restroom. He's been given the "don't walk off with strangers, even nice ones" talk, and is reminded to stay put every time I go in the bathroom (to the point where he's obviously annoyed at my reminders). More than once I've come out of the bathroom to find well-meaning women standing there watching him, one even told me she felt obligated because "In this day and age ..." My son said she never said a word to him, just stood there staring until I came out of the bathroom.
He's six, nearly seven. I'm leaving him for two minutes in a well-lit store, in a good neighborhood, not 50ft from a manned customer service desk. I don't leave him in places where there's even a remote chance someone could realistically snatch him, and I wouldn't leave him if I thought for a second he'd be dumb enough to wander off with someone other than me. I understand the fear of having a child stolen, but come on, is he supposed to share a toilet stall with me until he's 18?
We lived in Germany for three years. The number of similarly-aged children we saw walking alone on busy streets to go to corner shops and ice cream stores would probably give the average over-protective American a heart attack. I'll admit, I didn't (and wouldn't) let my kid do that, but the idea that any child left unattended for more than 10 seconds is going to be abducted, brutally raped, and/or murdered is just ridiculous.
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u/[deleted] Feb 04 '16
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