Bus stops and bitching

Here's a topic you'll hear about a lot…  My views on parenting.  What???  What???  Yeah.  I know.  I have a lot of opinions on it.

Here's what I want to know:  Why are the parents of 10 year olds still hanging out at the bus stop?

No, no one is going to steal your kid.  You have a much greater chance of killing that child while you blast down the road texting your BFF about margarita night.  Honest.  The whole child abduction thing...  Yes, it sometimes happens.  Sure.  But not like we think it does.  And I can pretty much guarantee, out of all the "attempted child luring" you hear about and the media freaks out about, most are made up. They almost always end up being a story fabricated by the kid.  And while I'm not saying that means we shouldn't be diligent, I think our real diligence needs to be in educating our kids instead of helicoptering over them.  Because interestingly, for all the "attempted lurings" we hear about, how many actual abductions are happening?  Not many.  The kids in the story always either walk or run away.  That's it.  Pretty easy.  Or suspicious.  Whichever.

Maybe what we could do is teach our children what to do if someone actually approaches them and tries to actually lure them or grab them or whatever.  Like, hit the ground.  Become a heavy weight.  Kick.  Scream.  "YOU AREN'T MY DAD!!"  That sort of shit.  Maybe let's teach them to find an adult.  How to choose a safe adult.  Please don't tell them to find a cop.  They are never going to find a cop, just walking along a residential street.  Find a mom.  Find a dad with kids.  Find a group of parents.  Find a safe adult, and know what that looks like.  And if you don't think any adult is safe… well, you're screwed.  Because hovering over them until they are 14, then suddenly releasing them into the wild, unsupervised and uneducated, is a recipe for disaster.  Says me.