I visit my Starbucks once a day for my caffeine fix. Occasionally, my ex will join me and we'll spend ten minutes or so complaining about our jobs or planning ways to thwart our teenager's plans to date at 14. The coffee shop is located in a too-small parking lot that serves as an impromptu shortcut to traffic from adjacent streets. Cars regularly cut through at high rates of speed. It's what happens.
In the corner of my eye I saw her--a smartly dressed black-haired woman with her toddler in tow--a small boy no more than four years old. Nothing unusual. I returned to the conversation. Then it happened.
During a momentary lull in the traffic, the dark-haired woman said something to the child and the child wobbled away from her--across the parking lot---alone.
I stopped talking and stared. As the toddler neared the far sidewalk, next to a donut shop, a car sailed into the parking lot, then slowed. My ex and I both watched as the child walked over to a dark-colored late-model sports car, opened the door and pulled out an orange soda bottle. As he did so, the pickup truck parked next to that car pulled out into the parking lot and drove away.
Then the kid, with his bottle of orange soda started back across the parking lot. I got up out of my chair, wondering what to do. Should I ask his mommy what the hell she thought she was doing? Should I rush out into the parking lot and escort this little kid? What?
In this relatively wealthy and severely Republican town, pointing out to a mommy deficiences in parental behavior--no matter how egregious--can get you screamed at or possibly clocked. And the parking lot was momentarily clear So I hesitated. But I held my breath.
By the time I had figured out what I thought at the time was the proper action---walking parallel to the kid and effectively running interference--the kid was safely(?) back with his mommy. Seconds later a Ford MiniSUV roared though the parking lot. . .followed by a pickup truck.
Both my ex and I---admittedly hovercraft parents--spent the next several minutes critiquing the woman's behavior, but mostly our own. Should we have said something, and if so, what? "Excuse me, lady, but this is a busy parking lot, your kid is too small to be seen by many drivers, and someone could run over him. . ."
Perhaps the mommy was a woman who believed that "free range kids" stuff--allowing her four year old into a busy parking lot just so he would have the experience. If so, she should have at least taught him to look both ways before he crossed into the danger zone.
Regardless, had a vehicle roared in and hit that child, I would have blamed myself for not preventing it.
Later, when I told one of my right-winger friends about it, his response surprised me: "That woman will do it again. Maybe next time her kid won't be as lucky. You should have taken her license number and called it in to the Child Protective Services."
He may have been right.