When Jodie Norton found herself doubled-over in pain in the shower one morning last year, she knew she had to get to the hospital. Her hurdle to help was a common one: She has four children, and two needed to get to school that morning.
Her solution, she thought, would be a pretty foolproof one. She drove to the local hospital with all four children in tow, organising for a neighbour to come and pick up the two eldest boys and take them to school from there.
Instead, what transpired was an alarming potential abduction scenario that was avoided only because her sons remembered a lesson she had taught them only weeks earlier: the “tricky person” concept.
As the US mum details on her blog Time Well Spent, her 10-year-old CJ and her 8-year-old T-Dawg waited patiently outside the hospital for their neighbour to arrive in what they assumed would be a five minute wait. It turned out to be 40.
“In that 40 minutes of obedient sitting and waiting, my two boys experienced their first real-world experience with the freaky, perverted strangers they’ve been intermittently warned about,” she wrote.
“While on that bench, they were approached by an adult female and two punk males who asked them if they’d ‘help them out by going into the bathroom where her boyfriend was hiding from the doctor and see if they could convince him to come out and get treated’. Yes, I’m serious that’s what they said. Even after CJ replied, “No, thank you” they kept at them.”
Top Comments
My son is now 30 yrs. old, I also have a 45 yr. old son. The difference of 15 yrs. in regard to child safety is paramount. One thing I did tell my now 30 yr. old, when he was young
was just that," adults don't ask kids for help to find a dog, their kid, anything. " Adults know kids forget in an instant, therefore no adult will ask. However if they forget this, I told them to back far away from the street if they're walking down the block, not to go close to the street at anytime and always look around to see what may be up. I'm from N.Y.C. and I lived on the blocks all around my Brooklyn neighborhood, I learned about strange behavior and it helped me when I was an 8 yr. old a teenager and still does. I also had the secret code and made sure my sons never told their friends or any family member, unless they were there to get them. Thank goodness for cell phones and the like, however I am now a grandmother and those fears feel just the same as they did long ago.
Hats off to the presence of mind your children have and the fool proof way of identifying tricky adults. What scumbags these tricky adults are......