Astounded

In the past two outings I have had with the kids recently I have been astounded at how lax people are with their kids and just leaving them anywhere unattended.

We went to the library the other day and there was a baby sitting in a stroller with no one in sight for about 15 min. At the same time there is a boy about 2 yrs old swinging toys around, narrowly missing the other kids playing around him. All the mom's in the area are looking around with the "who's kids are these?" look. Finally this woman appears out of the rows of bookshelves and approaches the baby, never checking on the 2 yr old. I'm completely dumbfounded that this woman never approached the baby or even checked on the baby for such a long time. Anyone could have easily walked off with the baby and she would have had no clue!!! Later I see her looking for the 2 yr old and calling his name. She had no idea where he was! Come to find out later that these weren't even her kids, she was the BABYSITTER!!!!!!!! My heart sank when I found this out, knowing that the mom who has left these kids in her care is assuming they are being protected, loved, and taken care of , when clearly they are not. To top it all off, the woman was a teacher for many years and decided to start taking care of kids in her home to be home more with her own children. Really?? These are the people who are teaching our kids?!?!

Today as I was sitting in Target with the kids as they were eating their lunch, a woman is on her cell phone having a very personal conversation that the rest of the people in Target really didn't need to hear, as her children are pulling on her clothes trying to get her attention. While it was more the conversation that she was having that got my attention than her kids needing her and her not responding, it was what she did later that floored me! She had ordered a hot chocolate from Starbucks and I guess had gone out to her car and realized it wasn't what she ordered. So she pulled up to the front, left her kids in a RUNNING car by themselves while she came and stood in line waiting to get a new hot chocolate. In the 5-10 min she was inside I only saw her look outside twice to see if they were okay. I would have been a nervous wreck leaving them for that long in a running car in a busy parking lot!! I felt like I needed to keep looking out the window to make sure no one came along and just took them, or they didn't get out of their seats and drive the car away themselves (being that they were about 4 or 5). Have I ever wanted to just run in somewhere myself and leave the kids to do a 10 min errand that will now take an hour with 4 kids? Yes, but I've never done it!

I consider myself to be pretty relaxed when it comes to my kids. For example, I will leave the youngest in the house (gated in the baby proofed living room) while I go and take Peyton a few feet down the sidewalk to the bus stop, but to leave these kids unattended for such a long time just astounds me!!!! It also leaves me feeling VERY grateful that my husband works hard to provide for our family so that I am able to stay home with our children. And the few times they are with my mother in law or sister in law, I know they are loved and safe.