STRANGER DANGER

As the news reports continually tell us of brutal attacks in other parts of the city or country, it's always good to have a reminder about stranger danger. Our neighbour popped over today, we don't know her very well yet, she (and her teenage daughter and younger son) have only been here a short time and keep much to themselves. She came to alert us to the fact that her son (10ish) had been mugged yesterday. He was alone, skateboarding, at a local school. He wasn't in a remote part of the grounds but, instead, very close to where there is a large, busy swimming pool. A guy (approx. 18ish by his description) approached him, asked him where his parents were (to which he answered "at home") and then proceeded to take the boy's ipod from him. There was a tussle between them, the boy threw his skateboard at the attacker and didn't give up the ipod easily. The attacker ran off through a reserve area next to the school grounds, not to be seen again.

Wow! So close to home.......some good lessons for us all. We had a discussion with our children over lunch............always go with someone else, if you can, don't isolate yourself......be aware of who's around..........pray..........say your parents/guardian are just around the corner and you're about to catch them up..........leave the valuables at home...........give them whatever they ask for, life is far more valuable than 'things'..........I think it's sad that we have to tell our children these things and remove the innocence but, oh, so important. And it's not always happening somewhere else, it can be as close as 50 metres down the road.

Later in the day, something else came out of the discussion with our children. J12 came up with the idea, and had discussed and agreed on it with S7 and E10, that they wanted to contribute towards buying a new ipod for the neighbour's boy. He'd already been to Dad to discuss it, who said that he would match it dollar for dollar. It made my heart sing.