I have a pretty active radar for questionable situations for children, and it was really going off the other day when I took the girls for their annual Santa's lap picture.
There was this nice lady with her three children in front of us in line and she was encouraging Santa to entice her timid toddler toward Santa using candy and a storybook. "Oooooh, Molly! Look! He wants to give you candy, what a nice man!"
It was funny, because as a fellow fan of Santa lap pictures, it took a second to think about how contrary this message is to children who are otherwise taught to be cautious around strangers, no to mention that you don't take candy from one or sit on his lap for story time!
I'm not suggesting that this parent did anything wrong, she knew she could trust (at least for a few minutes) her children on Santa's lap, and the child likely approached the man due to her trust in her mom's protection, but I thought it was funny that the scene was so similar to what you'd imagine would occur if a pedophile was trying to attract your child.
Kinda sad that this even occurred to me!
So here are my sweet daughters on Santa's lap. Ruby asked for lots of Littlest Pet Shop and Alice asked for a stuffed dog in a carrying bag and an ipod. She really shocked me with the ipod thing. We went to Toys 'R' Us to prepare for Santa and she saw an MP3 player she wanted, and didn't forget about it! What is a 4-year old going to do with an MP3 player!?
4 comments:
Kennedy and Jack both had that kidtough mp3 player and looooved them! I just put those kidbop songs on them, and a few storybooks. I think Jack was 4 when he got his. It was worth the money. Crazy. They start young now don't they?!
The picture of the two of them on his lap is adorable. Your post is so true, I never thought of it like that.
That is an adorable picture!
cute, it reminds me we still haven't seen santa...those lines are going to be LONG!!
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