From Bad to Worse

[Dips]

Both of these incidents happened on back-to-back days last fall, but something just reminded me...

Friday

Mr. Dips was going into the post office to drop off shipments for the coin store he works at. A lady saw him and asked him to carry her letters in to mail because she couldn't find a parking space. The parking lot was crowded, the lady was polite, so he shrugged and did it. He didn't find it sucky; he just found it a bit strange that someone would be so trusting with her mail as to rely on a random stranger to make sure it was delivered.

Saturday

Mr. Dips was dropping our son off at church for a religious education class. The rules are that you have to park and physically bring your child into the building. So he's walking into the building with our son when a man pulls up in his car and asks Mr. Dips to escort his kid into the building because he had hurt his leg and walking was difficult.

I don't know about you guys, but a bum leg is not going to make me rely on a total random stranger to take care of my kid for me.

BTW, Mr. Dips told the guy "no," but said he would mention the dilemma to one of the church volunteers. He did, but has no idea what happened after that.

[tollbaby]

errr the second one doesn't surprise me. It's a church. I'd trust any of the folks I go to church with to walk my kids into a building. I wouldn't ask them for much more than that, but I'd trust them with at least that. Besides, he could have stayed parked there to make sure your husband came back out alone and not, you know, covered in internal bodily fluids... Don't see what the big deal was there. It's a bit different for, say, karate class or violin lessons or something, but church?

(btw, my mom routinely sent me in with classmates' parents when i was taking violin lessons at a high school in town).

[Dips]

Our church is part of the Archdiocese of Boston. A few years ago, there was a huge scandal about pedophiles in trusted positions (priests, volunteers, etc.) repeatedly abusing children because the archdiocese chose to not to act on reports or (in some cases) chose to actively cover them up. A lot of the abuse dated back to at least the 60s.

This...thing...also lived in the town bordering ours.

I probably should have included those details in my OP, because it makes my husband's reaction a little more understandable.

And, I agree, it totally sucks that we should even have to worry about these things.

[tollbaby]

ah... yes, that does changes things a teensy bit. ugh.

[Imogene]

Er... and the post office was okay with having Mr. Dips bring in mail from someone else? That would NOT have flown with airlines.
"Has anyone asked you, in the past 24 hours, to bring a package in with you?"

[tollbaby]

Well, I've never been to a post office in the US, but here in Canada, there's a slot in the counter for envelope-sized mail. If that's all it was, then the employees wouldn't know whose it was or who brought it in.

[Becks]

Some people are entirely too trusting.

[Knightmare]

I couldn't get the link to work, so I did some digging and got this:

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2001/...in307009.shtml