Parking Lots and Toddlers - Hold Them Close

It was a brief but scary moment on Tuesday when we were in the Kmart parking lot. My daughters and I were getting out of the car. I got my purse out and stood up when I saw a little boy, about three years old, running about three feet in front of his mother towards his father, another two feet away. The dad was putting their purchases in their car. The mother said nothing to her son. She just let him run along the row of parked cars. Just as she past behind a SUV, the driver put it in reverse. My daughter, Charlotte, age 7, suddenly said, "that was scary, that mother did not hold that boy's hand and then that car started to back up." It had been just a minute earlier we could have witness a tradgey. Maybe the driver saw the boy and waited, but maybe not. It could have just been God's hand in motion. Drivers of sedans have a hard time seeing small children. I know SUV drivers have it even harder - they are up high. I always tell my children parking lots are dangerous places, because drivers are not looking for children, they are looking for their parking spot, thinking of what they need to get and listening to the radio or talking on the cell phone. I comforted Charlotte, because she said her heart was beating. I secretly cursed the parents for not only being careless with their own child, but for scaring mine.