O/T Would you let your seven year old ....?

W

WannaBeStrong

Cathlete
I was in Target the other night when this little girl approached me asking where the cards were for prepaid phones. I asked her where her mom was. (It was after 6 pm and dark outside.) She said that her mother was in the car and sent her inside with money to purchase a card for her prepay phone. I walked with this 7 year-old to the phones and helped her find the card. Would you let your 7 year-old go into a store in the evening to purchase something while you wait in the car? I wouldn't. I hate to think bad things about people, but my first assumption was that her mother was in the car either drunk or high on drugs and this girl seemed so independant as a lot of children are when their parents don't take proper care of them and they have to care for themselves. I can't even imagine sending my 9 year old into a store at night to find something. I don't think she would do it. Keep in mind this is a big city with a lot of crime. What was her mother thinking? Am I being too judgmental?

Just wanted to know what you thought.

Shirley
 
That was very nice of you to go with the little girl and help her find the calling card. You're right about never, ever sending your child into a store all alone. I never would at that age.
Susan C.M.
 
I wouldn't let my 7 year old walk to the school bus stop by themselves but I see little kids in our neighborhood doing it all the time.

I just don't get it!!!
 
Shirley I've lived in the ghetto all my life and you know what's really sad, when you see a 3 yr. old outside 1-2 a.m. in the morning running from corner to corner and the mother is SCREAMING her stupid head off calling for her child from the inside. Most of the time the mother couldn't find her b/c here daughter would be inside my apt. Thank goodness they moved longed before we did. I could've called the cops, but I felt better taking the child in my place.

Haydee
 
No, never, never, never!! I have, however, allowed my 9 year old to go into a particular convenience store here in our tiny town of Appomattox (where the Civil War ended, population 3,500) while I waited in the car with her little brother. The last time she went in by herself to this little convenience store was right before Christmas. Two days later, that little convenience store was robbed in broad daylight. Needless to say, she will probably never even ask to go in there again by herself, even in our tiny, hole-in-the wall town. It's scary!!
 
I wouldn't even let me 8-year old son go into a store alone. Especially not a giant store like Target or Walmart!

I remember way back when I was a teenager working at a drugstore, kids would come in all the time to buy cigarettes for there parents. I don't think they can do that anymore. I'm not even sure it was legal then...???
 
No way! I agree with everybody...I would not let my 7 yo go in. Sometimes I wonder if I am too over-protective, but I'd rather be over-protective and have them safe than be leniant and regret it later.

Right now, in the last 4 days, there were 2 abduction attempts at the school busstop in my School District...actually in my town. I've never let him walk to the stop alone and I ALWAYS go to the stop to pick him up!

Gayle
 
No - friggin - way !

And as ticked off as that would have made me I probably would have gone out to the car with her and asked her mother what the hang was she thinking!!

My sister has worked for social services all her life. She would have probably called the police just so there would be a report on file.

Forget the Village - Where's the Parent(s)?


Dawn
 
I'm childfree by choice, but I remember all too well the story of little Adam Walsh, who was snatched in a store in a sleepy little Florida town after his mother had turned her head literally for only a couple of minutes . . . and his decapitated body was located months later.

The number of times I've seen young, young children left alone to scamper around on the pool deck of the club where I teach aqua is truly pathetic and frightening.

Never, never let a child that age wander alone in a public place.

A-Jock
 
My SIL lets her children, who are now 11 and 8 but have been doing this since they were a couple years younger even, run around their community pool CERTAINLY out of eyesight of their parents. I don't agree with it, but it's not my place to say anything so I just sit there and pray that those kids are with us on the drive home when we leave the pool in the afternoon....

Have a great work out!

~Wendy~
Due Date: 5/19/05

http://www.bullmarketer.com/modules/coppermine/albums/userpics/Sports/exercise/thumb_exercise15.gif

http://www.picturetrail.com/gallery/view?WENDYMIN
 
I would not even do that here ,And we dont lock any doors where I live ,Out in the boonies LOL ... And your right ,shes probably growing up hard and fast .!!! sooo sad .You did the right thing ..Hugs to you ,most people would be too busy to help. :) :)
 
I would never let a 7 year old go into a store alone at night. Just think what could have happened. She went up and talked to a stranger, and followed the stranger to another part of the store. What if she had asked a not-so-nice, pedophile of a stranger?
And what in heaven's name is a 7 year old doing with a cell phone?
 
My son is 9 years old and I would NEVER let him go into a store alone. Even when we are in a store together, I like to see him near me. I start getting nervous if he goes down the aisles without me. Call me over protective, but this world is not a safe place!! You did a really good deed! Many people would not have done what you did!

Aila:)
 
That is true. Man, I hope my kids don't ever do that. I don't let them out of my sight in the store; unless I'm in the grocery store and have them go together to get a bag of sugar (or something) a couple aisles down. But they are 11 and 9.
Well, thanks for all your opinions. I was thinking the worst about the mother and then thought that maybe I should give people the benefit of the doubt. I should have mentioned something to the security guard at Target.

Shirley
 
The other day I was telling my teenager how my grandma would send us to the little store across the street to buy her cigarettes. She sent us with a note and they sold us the cigarettes. (I was young too...maybe 8 or 9). Not sure if it was legal or not but grandma knew the owners of the store.

Shirley
 
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