Stranger Danger
I’ve told this story before, but I’ll tell it again. It’s one of many, but this one stands out. I’m about seven, my neighbors are eight and nine, and we’re at a bus stop.
Guy in a stereotypical white van pulls up and asks if we’ve seen a dog. He doesn’t describe the dog, and the truth is, dogs ran around in our neighborhood. My mother taught me stranger danger since as long as I can remember.
So, one of the boys at the stop, we’ll call him Paul: Paul describes a dog and man in van is like, “That’s my dog; why don’t you get inside the van, we can all go look for him?” Well, I had red flags going off at this point, and said, “No, I have to ask my mother,” and as soon as those words left my mouth, he peeled out.
It was only later that I realized I saved us all from child abduction, specifically Paul who was walking toward the van to get in. Teach your kids what to do if this situation happens.
Get the license plate, the guys face, the car type, and what to do if something does happen. If I had known to snag his plates, we might have had a chance at catching him, but I only knew to “say no!”
Another time. I was speeding down a hill and thought, “What if there’s a deer around the corner?” So, I slowed down and sure enough, there were three deer in the road. Saved my own life by a rando thought. Story credit: Reddit / ManicTypist