Rob is home.

[ailbhe]

I am off-duty. Linnea is covered in coloured pens, her eardrums are probably never going ot recover from Fred Astaire putting on his top hat, white tie and tails at dance-loudness, her dinner cane to a halt when I realised that I was begging her through sobs to sit down, she has mostly eaten bananas today, but she is still alive, and so am I.

Pop quiz: When you see a mother screaming for her child because she is terrified that the child is in danger, do you:

1. Get out of the way?
2. Try to rescue the child?
3. Wait until it's over and offer sympathy?
4. Laugh at her as she dashes past you to rescue the child?

Does your answer alter if it is partially your fault that the child is perceived to be in danger?

We went to the new corner shop and bought bananas. Linnea insisted on carrying them home, which was fine by me but got us some funny looks.

I bought her an Early Learning Centre portable tabletop easel. I'm going to bring it to the hospital, for a start, next time we have to go. It's much better than the easel we had already and fastens up into a case with space for paper, pens etc. And coloured chalk.

Days like today don't happen very often. Today I was so stressed that I walked past a ladybird without pointing it out to her.

However, today we also had breakfast together, with a couple of stuffed toys and a lot of giggles. We had a great game of hanging out the washing. We woke smiling. We had some fun playing in the Early Learning Centre. We had a lot of fun buying bananas. We danced to a Fred Astaire CD (Linnea is frustrated by her inability to kick in time to the music; balance is tricky). We played wrapping each other up in towels, and the teddy played too.

Linnea played a complicated game of rhythms on the way into town. She clenched her fists up by her jaw and shook them, then clapped. There was a pattern but I didn't dare stop the buggy and pay attention for fear of stopping the game by accident.

H&M have some great colours at the moment, very strong with bags of contrast. I have a long-sleeved orange tshirt for days when it's too cold to wear my short-sleeved one. I must remember to check out H&M 13yo fashions again, as they are huge and the shirts etc will easily fit me. The arms will be a bit long, but then, Linnea's shirts' arms are probably too long for me.

Rob came home, changed and dressed Linnea, and left again to buy me chocolate. I am drinking lemon, ginger and clove tea. I also ordered the week's groceries. Query: Does anyone, when purchasing eating apples, think "I need about so much by weight" rather than "I need about 6 apples this week"? Because I always eat my apples by the appley unit, not by weight. But I have to order them by weight, and I still have no idea how much an apple weighs. Nor a banana, for that matter.

Linnea ate cold potato and bombay mix for lunch (with the peanuts removed, because I still care that much). She could have had apple juice if she hadn't chewed the straw up before we pierced the packet with it.

She recognises the word "muffin".

Comments

[tiggsybabes.livejournal.com]

2. I always dash in & attempt to help & then offer symapthy & reassurances that it wasn't the parent's fault & that some sort of similar terrible thing has happened to me & we're all still here to tell the tale.

I've had a slightly trying day today & had to lie down for 30 mins this evening & cuddle a cat & read a book to gather strength to carry on.

[barakta]

2. Try to rescue the child?

Does your answer alter if it is partially your fault that the child is perceived to be in danger?

I'd be mortified if I had put someone else's child in danger. I know very little about children not having any of my own. My worst thing is not seeing small children and then falling over when they are at my feet - I have vertigo and knackered peripheral vision. As a result I am ultra cautious where there may be children running around.

I can't believe that woman let a door fall on Linnea and then laughed, that is outrageous. I've had doors dropped on me and I hate it, I try very hard not to do that to other people.

I am very glad Rob came home and relieved you of duty for a while. Today sounds like it had lots of stress even if there were some nice bits.

I hope tomorrow is a much better day.

[buzzy-bee.livejournal.com]

Having assured myself that you had your child safe, I might just have been tempted to have a go at the one laughing, frankly. I cannot believe that! My own experience of a child in danger (not my own, a friend's) was that everyone rushed to make sure everyone was OK.

[pariyal.livejournal.com]

Yes, it's 2 for me too. Did it just the other day, in fact; put out my arm to keep a toddler from running onto the bike path.

I do buy apples by weight: two kilos on Wednesday and three kilos on Friday, because I can be absolutely sure that the girls (and their friends) will have eaten all but a few of them by the next market-day.

[thereyougothen.livejournal.com]

I think I'm proibably 3 - wait until it's over then in with the tea and sympathy. mostly because rescuing theirs means letting go of mine, and i'm feart to do that very often.
i rescuse my friends' kids all the tim,e but not strangers. i'm afriad that what i perceive as danger isn't. so i stick to the sympathy route.

i've only ever ordered online wiht sainsburys and i think they let you choose 6 apples, or 7 bananas. for soe reason i always buy a bunch of 7 bananas. it's not like they last a week. some days i swear N would eat all 7.

as for the horribel cow with the door - i'll bet you before she goes to bed tonight she will have smashed her finger in a door, or a drawer or something. she will have deserved it.

[razordemon.livejournal.com]

H&M is into great colours, but apparently not into cocaine. Colour in. White out.

[nolly.livejournal.com]

I would at least get out of the way. Whether I attempted to rescue the child myself would depend on circumstances, including whether I knew the parent/child, how imminent the danger was, and how helpful I thought I could be.

For instance, let's say I'm in a coffeeshop, and someone's kid makes a break for the door. If I don't know the folks at all, and I'm across the room, I probably won't do anything. If I'm by the door, and it looks like the responsible adult will not overtake the child before the child reaches the door, I'd probably block the door, but if the adult will clearly overtake, I probably won't do anything.

If, on the other hand, I know the parent and child, I will join in pursuit and/or scoop up the runaway myself.

[otterylexa.livejournal.com]

I would do 2 in this particular situation, 1 in some others, if I'm not sure my help would be needed or appreciated.

I don't buy apples very often, but I don't think it's so confusing to order by weight, as I have some idea what a kilo of apples looks like.

[ckd]

2 where it's reasonable, some choice of 1 or 3 otherwise (cue nolly's and alexa_robinson's caveats as to when to do what).

I did have to do 2 some time ago, when a young child managed to get his head stuck between parts of a folding door on the T; I basically leaped from my seat and shoved the door hard enough to free him. I was scared; I can hardly imagine how he, or his mother, felt.

Had I been there to witness her laughing, I would have minimally told that horrible so-called person off for laughing.

[lovingboth]

I realised that parenthood had changed me about three years ago when I not only noticed a toddler wandering out of a shop alone, but intercepted it, asked it where mummy or daddy were, and guided it back into the shop before they noticed it was missing.

"Laughing woman - now let's try it with your kid..."

[k425.livejournal.com]

Popquiz

1/2 depending on how fast the parent is moving and which direction the child is moving. If child looks like my approach my cause them to move away faster I'll stand out of the way. If it looks like I can prevent an accident without causing one I'll do that. Then sympathy.

I cannot buy fruit by weight. Or veg. If I want a couple of carrots for dinner, how many kilos is that, then? No idea.

[micheinnz.livejournal.com]

Pop quiz: My answer is 2, and OHMYGOD 2 if I partially put the child in danger. I'm not surprised you feel like this after the day you've had. I'd be a weeping wreck too!

And we buy apples by number, not weight. Five for Weegirl's school lunches and usually another seven or eight for snacking.

[baratron.livejournal.com]

1 if it's not my fault, 3 if it's not my fault but I know the parent, 2 if it is my fault.

I was going to say that as a general rule, I wouldn't attempt to rescue a child of a parent I didn't know from anything unless it was VERY serious, for fear that I'd get accused of child molesting, but you already said that the parent has seen the child in danger. So that makes the difference.