Strangers

We are very fortunate enough to be able to live in a good neighborhood. We love our location and for our first home we got very lucky. We are only the third owner of our home that was built 50s or 60s. The first were the builders and they lived here two years and the second owners were a little couple who lived here for 30+ years. They were an older couple when we bought the house but raised their two boys here and babysat our next door neighbor (who told us about the house). The morning the sign went up my husbands boss at the time (our neighbor and good friend) told my husband because he knew we were fixing to start looking. My husband came to look at the house on his lunch break loved it and when I got off work we both came by and put in an offer. The night we signed on our house and started moving in is the day my husband asked me to start staying home with Punkin and that is also how I began to be a stay at home mom.

Our neighborhood is great for many reasons: one we are two minutes from our church, we love our neighbors (most are retired or stay at home moms), we are still in city limits but far enough out that we don't have to deal with all the hoop blah that goes on in town. Hoop blah you ask? Well during February mainly when Mardi Gras is going on. No our Mardi Gras isn't like the one in New Orleans and ours is only two different parades that happen on two different Saturdays and then we have a Sunday parade for kids. We almost never attend for many reasons but thats a different story. Anyways, we also have woods around our house so we can go 4-wheeler riding and nobody cares probably because the whole neighborhood rides them. But at the same time if we want to do anything movies, dinner, shopping, gymnastics, etc... it is all about five minutes aways maybe ten if the traffic is bad. I have however noticed (and i'm sure its because I stay at home) we have a lot of people that come by trying to sale you something, get you to answer a survey, etc. Well even though it's a good neighborhood this still makes me nervous because they are still strangers. So I never open my storm door (that is ALWAYS locked), if I can see them coming up the driveway or walk I will usually let the dogs in if they are not already in, I might be a little paranoid but I would rather be that than sorry one day. So what made me post something about strangers today well this morning we had a visitor trying to take a survey or something of some sort.

We were having breakfast and I see a kid (from my kitchen table he looked like a high school student) walking up my driveway, I was also on the phone with my husband. He told me to keep him on the phone so I let Punkin talk to him while I talked through the storm door with the guy. He said he was from our local college and trying to talk to parents about a new education program going on for school age kids and that he had to go door to door to get a class credit. Well, I told him to come back this evening when my husband was home and we would be glad to see his material. I find out Punkin hung up on her daddy. When I asked if he said anything she said "no I told him bye." So I asked her why did you do that and she replied (making her mama oh so proud). "Mama we DO NOT talk to strangers and your in trouble!" I'm so glad she listens to what we have been drilling into her head since March of this year.

We realized that we needed to start teaching the girls about strangers (even though they are always with a parent or grandparent) after a tragedy happened in our city with a very young child. It was very said and I'm proud to say that the creep got what he deserved although I do think he could have gotten worse (one reason I can't watch the news anymore). We did not know they child but a really good and close friend of ours did very well so it hit home a little. After finding out about this tragedy me and the girls were grocery shopping and Punkin, my social butterfly, was her usual self smiling and saying hi to everyone which doesn't bother me until she asked a stranger if he wanted to come home with us. This scared me half to death! So we went over to the book section and I bought the book The Berenstain Bears Learn About Strangers. We started reading and discussing it as soon as we got home and this is also usually their lunch time story. The rules were great and so we started applying them to our routine randomly asking them and then at bed time right before prayers we asked them and Punkin asked them back to us after.

They are as follows:

Do we talk to strangers?...............NO

Do we go anywhere with a stranger?..............NO

Do we take candy from a stranger?.................NO

Do we take presents from a stranger?..................NO

What if a stranger tries to touch us?..................(screaming) WE SCREAM AND RUUUUNNNN AWAY!

To see that she is applying them is amazing and makes me feel better. I am a mom so I will always worry about my girls but I also am a firm believer that you can never be to cautious or start to early teaching safety.