This week while at a day camp held by my town, in a local park, a man bought my son a soda from a vending machine. While my son is fine and nothing bad happened, we still do not know who this man was and when I think of the “could have’s” in this situation I feel the blood drain from my body and my heart race. I cannot fathom that I could have sent my sweet, sweet 5 year old to a day camp and he may have been abused or gone missing or worse all while being “watched” by camp counselors.

We have talked about strangers to my son before and last night when we talked to him again he said so innocently “but Mom he was a nice stranger!” I knew I had failed him as a parent. I have failed to teach him how to keep himself safe in situations when I am not present. I have failed him to trust his instincts and be aware that not adults can be counted on to be nice to small children, even when they act nice. Needless to say although I am terrified I know I need to arm myself with information and teach my child in a different way about strangers.

Over the next few weeks I plan on letting you know what resources I find, what seems to work with a 5 year old and what fails to resonate. I plan on bugging Kelly and Shannon to put the resources I find in the store. I also hope that you can all learn from mistake and make your family safer.

Stacey