My daughter has detailed instructions for after school. The bus drops her off approximately 25 yards from our house.
Get off the bus.
Go in the house.
Lock the door.
Call me.
There are only a few random occasions when she has to go home to an empty house. Yesterday was one of those times. About an hour after my daughter arrived home, she called me at work.
Daughter: “A guy has two flat tires and he wants to know if he can leave his truck in our parking lot until he can get a new tire.”
Me: “What?!!!” Where are you? Where is the truck? Did you answer the door?”
In the background, I hear the man talking about his truck, the tire and the flat spare.
Me: “Go back inside the house.”
When I got home from work, I spoke to my daughter about the man with the flat tire. She assured me that she cautiously looked out the window before opening the door. The man pointed at his truck and the flat tire. He asked for permission to leave the truck until he was able to repair the tire. She called me to obtain permission. My daughter concluded her side of the story with…”He didn’t look creepy.”
We spent the next ten minutes discussing her faulty logic.
You cannot tell if a person is dangerous simply by the way they look.
A person does not have to look “creepy” to be “creepy”.
Get off the bus.
Go in the house.
Lock the door.
Call me.
There are only a few random occasions when she has to go home to an empty house. Yesterday was one of those times. About an hour after my daughter arrived home, she called me at work.
Daughter: “A guy has two flat tires and he wants to know if he can leave his truck in our parking lot until he can get a new tire.”
Me: “What?!!!” Where are you? Where is the truck? Did you answer the door?”
In the background, I hear the man talking about his truck, the tire and the flat spare.
Me: “Go back inside the house.”
When I got home from work, I spoke to my daughter about the man with the flat tire. She assured me that she cautiously looked out the window before opening the door. The man pointed at his truck and the flat tire. He asked for permission to leave the truck until he was able to repair the tire. She called me to obtain permission. My daughter concluded her side of the story with…”He didn’t look creepy.”
We spent the next ten minutes discussing her faulty logic.
You cannot tell if a person is dangerous simply by the way they look.
A person does not have to look “creepy” to be “creepy”.
8 comments:
A predatory pedophile will use such tactics and seem like the most likable person in the entire world .... count your blessings this was not one of those times.
Good grief.
I know...
It upsets me every time I think about it.
Gheesh - I let out a huge gasp when I read this. OMG...
Glad you had the "not looking creepy doesn't equal being creepy" talk with her.
Your daughter is in her teens, I'm assuming. "Just smart enough to be a danger to herself" as most teenagers are, lol.
You did very well to first, have those specific steps in place for her when shes comes home. And second, to teach her that looking harmless =/= being harmless.
I'm not even a father and I get nervous about how I will handle such events.
I beieve in the 80/20 rule. 80 percent of people are good and hopefully less than 20 percent are not. I refuse to live my life being guided by the 20 percent, we cannot live our lives being scared of everything or we will not live. Must we be so scared that we cannot help someone in need? If we live our lives in this manner, should we send our children to school, allow them to participate is school events such as sports, especially what we are currently hearing in recent times. Should we allow them to be with anyone other than we the parents, and sometimes parents can cause harm to our children. I am sure glad I am not the one that needs help, because I don't think I will get it from your house.
Felicia/Brett: Thank you for commenting!
Anon: Really? You are suggesting that my daughter should have answered the door and hope the person on the other side is one of the 80%. According to your statistics 1 out of 5 people are "not good". Last week, a man was fatally stabbed during a home invasion in a rural part of the county we live in.
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