Starkizzer

My grandma scared the shit out of me when I was little by telling me that if I ever talked to a stranger they would take me, cut me into little pieces with RAZOR BLADES, and mail the pieces back to her in boxes. Yet she told me that I would talk to anyone, she even had her friends come up to us in the stores to see if we would talk to strangers. I think kids can sense when someone is not right.

Most of the time I have no problem walking around at night or walking down a street by myself. However, every once in a while something makes my skin crawl and I will cross the street to be on the opposite side so I don't have to walk next to someone. I can't explain why, it only happens with certain people and it rarely has anything to do with the way they look.

MSD: the sad part is that you can't always trust the people who we are supposed to trust. Where I grew up it was "trust no one". The High Desert is full of druggies, child molesters...etc. There was a sheriff who shot his high school son while arguing over how to take care of the kids mom who was terminally ill with cancer. A girl I went to high school with was put away for being an accomplice to a brutal theft/murder when she was a freshmen. Her junkie bf got her into the mess, I remember her telling me she KNEW she could trust him, then later in reports they found her huddled in the hallway too afraid to call the police. The body of a girl was found in a field, she was buried there by her marine fiance. A teacher at my school was fired for going to high school parties, buying the kids alcohol,and having sex with the girls, for both grades and for thrills.

World is a scary place, tell your kids that but eventually they will just have to determine whats what for themselves. All parents can do is give them the tools to deal with it. My dad taught me young how to throw a punch and how to fight dirty, never had to use it but know I could if I needed it. I say more of P.E. in school should be self defense courses and not flag football.

As to the OP its sad that kids are having games or practices where there is no parent or guardian there to watch them. Maybe that's idealistic of me, but I would hope, with small kids at least, that there is someone there for them for both safety reasons and as support.Then when the game is over they get into the car with a trusted family member and go someplace safe where they can take the jersey off.

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Frivolity, at the edge of a Moral Swamp, hears Hymn-Singing in the Distance and dons the Galoshes of Remorse. ~Edward Gorey