Hi, girlies! Hugs to everyone.
I have to share about something I saw today. I'm kicking myself for not having handled it better... it's one of those things that proves to me I DO need to be more assertive...
My girls and I left home for an adventure out. We were travelling down a paved rural road, comparable to a two-lane highway. I noticed a vehicle out in front of us, oncoming, seemingly stopped, and there was a form near the passenger side. The form moved to the front of the van, and as we drew closer I saw it was a girl. She looked to be 8 or 10 and was running, jogging. I slowed and when I came parallel to the girl I asked, "Is everything okay?" She seemed nothing more than out of breath and said, "Yeah." I inched forward and asked the same thing of who I presumed to be her mother. She said, waving a hand as if to shrug the circumstance off, "She's exercising." My instant reaction was the mom's got it under control, I'll move along. So I laughed, as if it was a logical explanation, said "Oh, okay" and drove on. But the further down the road I got, the more illogical I realized the whole scenario was. Why would this mother, regardless of whether or not she's following closely behind, let her young daughter "exercise" on a potentially busy road? What if this was some sort of punishment - or worse yet, abuse - and I just shrugged my shoulders to it? I should have questioned the mother. "On the highway? Can't she just run in place at home? What if a speeding car tries to pass you?" Who cares if the mom would have been offended by my quiz? I should have insured the safety of this girl. But by the time this all worked itself out in my head, I was too far to turn around. And calling the police would have been too dramatic. Now I hate how I handled the whole thing.
What would you have done?
