This could have ended badly...

[mariamousie1]

This isn't really a suck, I guess. It gave my mom a turn, though! She was at costco and there was a little girl nearby and a man came up and asked "What's your name?" and she told him. Then the man said "Do you come here often?" Right about now, my mom is memorizing his appearance for the police because she thinks he's a pedophile. Then the girl goes "Oh Daddy you're so silly!" and then waves and goes "Hi Mom we're over here!" So that was a bit of relief. Luckily no one called the police to come and taser the guy. Still, in this day and age, you kind of have to be careful about that because people can be very panicky about child abuse. I read once about a girl at McDonalds who wiped ketchup off her dad's shirt and someone called the police.

[ShinyGreenApple]

While this certainly did look bad to the unknowing eye, at least they were both in the game. When my sister's oldest son was 2, she and her husband were in a Toys R Us with him. They decided after a while that it was time to leave. Kiddo felt differently about the matter and took off running down the isle. My brother in law ran after him and scooped him up, after which half the store was treated with screeching choruses of "HELP! HELP! Put me down!"




Ouch. Bro in law put his own kid down like a hot potato and spent a few minutes convincing management and surrounding customers that they really were this little guy's parents Of course afterwards, kiddo was given a very long talking to about how this was wrong on several levels, and he never pulled it again.

[wagegoth]

LadyBarbossa, that was a big fear of mine. I always kept my kids in a cart, and made sure to hug them a lot. I kept them in carts probably past the size recommendation.

There was a case a few years ago where a 3-year-old got out of the house while his father was sleeping and mother was at work. A man saw him walking along the road, but was so afraid he'd be accused of something that he just followed the little boy in his car until he got to a place where he could call the police. Then he kept following him until the police arrived.

[GingerBiscuit]

I won't go into too much what I think, because that should be in fratching. But it's so horrible that people feel that level of fear when they are just trying to help.

[Gawdzillers]

LadyBarbossa, that was a big fear of mine. I always kept my kids in a cart, and made sure to hug them a lot. I kept them in carts probably past the size recommendation.

There was a case a few years ago where a 3-year-old got out of the house while his father was sleeping and mother was at work. A man saw him walking along the road, but was so afraid he'd be accused of something that he just followed the little boy in his car until he got to a place where he could call the police. Then he kept following him until the police arrived.

I think maybe even that would have been dangerous.
The right thing to do, but still has a chance of accusation.