Stranger danger

This is part two of my last post. 

We try to teach our kids and instill fear into them about strangers.  We tell them not to talk to strangers.  To never get in the car with a stranger or take candy from a stranger.  Natalie from the Today show just did a segment on this.  But yet we are contradicting ourselves and here is why:

1.  Halloween-  We go out and take candy from strangers.  What is that teaching our children.  We just told them to never take candy from strangers, but its ok if mom or dad is there?  That is making it very confusing for the children
    *Solution for us:  We didn't take the girls to any strangers houses for halloween.  We only went to the neighbors we know and who the girls know.  We will continue this tradition even if it may only be 5 houses.

2. We tell them never to talk to strangers.  But wait, 5 strangers in the store just stopped me and said how cute my kids were, and asked them their names.  I told the girls to say thank you for the comments.  I am telling my children to talk to strangers.  Again contradicting everything that I am trying to teach my children.  So again do I tell them, that they can talk to strangers only when mommy and daddy are around?  These evil people know how to carry on small talk with children to make the children trust them.
     *Solution for us:  I don't have one so if anyone with older children have one please leave a comment or email me!  It would help tremendously!

3. Never go into a strangers vehicle or pet their animals.  With this I have to watch Natalie's segment on that and I will take any advice too.

There is so much more to stranger danger now than when I was a little girl.  I was able to ride up and down the street hang out with friends on the street.  Now its like you can't even leave your yard, let alone be in your front yard.

I am nervous, paranoid, and have a huge fear regarding all of this.  I don't want to instill to much fear into the girls that they will never go outside, leave our side, or withdraw when people talk to them.  I don't want to not instill enough fear into them that they will think it is nothing if someone if a stranger comes up to them.  Which one won't because I will be that parent that is always involved with my children, always outside, never leaving them alone, and all the kids in the neighborhood will hang out at my house.  I am also lucky to have pretty shy girls when it comes to strangers, they always look at me for reassurance which is good.  I hope it stays that way!

How do you talk to your children, and what advice do you give them? 

I leave you with a couple pictures of our precious girls and two of Gavin because I just love him so much too!

Harly

Zoey

Gavin and his adorable big eyes!

Gavin and his mommy!

Strangers

I had a really cute blog for tonight, but something happened today that has kept me from posting my other post.

Our temporary housing is in an apartment complex.  Each building in the complex has 6 apartments.  All doors are outside to enter, so you don't go into a building and walk to your door. They are all private entries.  The girls and I took a long walk today around the whole complex because it was beautiful outside.  They also have a dog park in the complex and the girls are obsessed with watching dogs. 

After our walk we went and sat by the lake to watch the ducks.  As we were sitting, three kids came up to us.  They were 4,5 and their little brother was 2.  They loved the girls and wanted to play with them.  I was looking around for their parents and didn't see them anywhere.  The little boy was running around the lake, through different buildings, and in the street.  I asked the girls where their mom was, they said inside taking care of the baby. 

What hit me the hardest was these little children under the age of six, playing outside with no supervision, in a huge apartment complex, around WATER.  I looked around, they showed me where they live.  It was out of sight from where they were playing, and there was no one sitting on the deck trying to watch them.

These kids came right up to me and the girls with no fear at all.  I also watched them walk up to a man they didn't know because they wanted to pet the dog.  Did these parents teach them stranger danger.  I could have been a bad person and lured them into my house or car.  This man could been a bad guy and snatched them, and no one would have known.  Really, Really, are you SERIOUS?  If you are not going to watch your children, then why have kids?

After this I was a mess, I didn't want to leave these kids outside by themselves, I didn't want to leave this 2 year old by the water, but the girls were ready for dinner.  When we got into the house, Ian called.  He knew something was wrong.  I said the girls and I were playing with 3 little kids.  He asked if I met the parents and I said, "no they weren't there."  He asked where they were.  I said in their apartment and explained to him where it was located.  He said WHAT?!?!  He knew I was upset because I couldn't stay out to watch them.  If I didn't have kids, or they weren't ready to eat dinner I would have stayed and watched those children.

I was so stressed and torn up on the inside.  Am I crazy to fee this way?  You can comment and tell me if I am.  But if you saw the apartment complex and how big it is, someone could just drive through it and snatch a child, there is no dead end, the complex makes a circle.

Harly and Zoey-  You think mommy is going to be crazy about your safety?  Well, I think daddy is going to be ten times worse after our phone convo today!

An eventful day!

Today has been an eventful day.  Last night I picked up a shift at the hospital to help out.  I didn't get home til 1am.  I was hoping for a calm morning, boy was I wrong!

It wasn't a bad morning, but a fun morning!  We pretty much had a dance party all morning!  The girls hate the television, which I have stated in the past, but today Sesame street was a musical episode (probably my favorite episode!), instead of them watching it for only 5 minutes, they watched it for 10 minutes! After that we listened to the radio and some of their C.D's and danced til lunch time!

I was so tired from work and from not getting a good night's rest that I was hoping I could lay down after I cleaned the kitchen up from lunch.  Well, I was wrong.  Harly only took an hour nap (I dislike pooping during nap time!) and I couldn't get her to go back to sleep. So we hung out until Zoey got up from her 3 hour nap!

I made chicken quesadillas for dinner tonight.  The girls have been getting over being sick, so their systems have been all out of whack.  I hid some spinach in their quesadillas to help them out (they are not big fans of spinach, but they had no idea! such a sneaky mommy!)

After dinner, we took a ride to the outlets (daddy was going to be late tonight).  I figured that if I was going to get out of the house this winter, I guess I should start practicing (the girls hate being inside all day).  I had them strapped to me, but once they figured out where we were and that the duckies were here, they were trying to climb off me.  I knew I needed to have ground rules, and that I need to follow through with them.  Since I have two the same age, I can't be chasing them in two different directions.  They need to learn to stay by each other and mommy.  They are their own buddy system!  These are my rules:

*Have to hold mommy's hand the entire time when walking in public places. (will be rare, I will either have the stroller or have the wrap and carrier and attach them to me. (yes one on front, and one on back)
*Teach them to always stay by each other and together (that will probably take a couple years til they understand)
* If they refused to hold my hand or throw a tantrum, then I would carry them or put them back in the stroller.

* I am debating over getting them those backpacks with harnesses.  If anyone has suggestions on this, it would be greatly appreciated.  there is so much debate over this, I don't know what do to.

I am lucky that they are very good listeners, they did so good today.  Zoey, my little pistol, just likes to test mommy out!  But she knew today, mommy was not playing around.

We fed the ducks some crackers and they were so excited!  Next to us, were 17month old boy/girl twins.  They were so cute.  All four of them were chatting together in baby language, while their dad and I talked about raising twins!  The girls were flirting with the little boy. Oh, I am in sooo much trouble!!

Here are some pics from today!

Their quesadilla with some corn on the top!

Harly loving her quesadilla

zoey acting shy in front of the camera (came out a lil dark, sorry!)