Hanging out with the “stranger”

I started this post before I suddenly fell ill (previous post “Against the odds…he/she baby almost made it through!”).  Yes, I’ve had a tough few days, being in hospital etc. but one thing has been on my mind…”parenting”!

My children made friends with a girl that lives in the neighbourhood and, incidentally, attends the same school as them (previous post, “what a difference the great outdoors makes”).  She’s less than ten years old.  That day, we all played outside for a while but once it started getting too cold, I needed to take my children in.  I invited her inside but I first suggested she go home and tell her family where she was.  She didn’t - explaining that she was allowed to be out for a certain length of time and as long as she was in the neighbourhood, it was fine.

Once inside, I insisted she called home to tell her family exactly where she was.  I spoke to them and gave our address and phone number for security and in case they needed to contact her while she was here.

She’s a delightful girl and she thoroughly enjoyed her time with us, playing with my children.  She even stayed for lunch and then they played some more.  I asked what time she had to be home…”are you sure your parents won’t be worried?” etc etc etc.  Eventually, about six hours later (yes, 6 hours later), it was getting dark and I didn’t want her walking the streets alone so I took her home myself and “handed” her over to her family, just to be sure she’d got home safely.  I told them she’d had lunch etc. and she was absolutely fine with us and no trouble at all (true).  They didn’t seem fazed at all.

I was a bit surprised that they didn’t know exactly where she was and they didn’t seem bothered that she’d not returned home for lunch (did they care?).  All they knew was that she was in the neighbourhood…BUT she was in a stranger’s house!  They don’t know us, so we could be anyone.  Absolutely anyone.  I seemed to be the one trying to engage her family; calling her home when she was with us just so they knew where she was.

She’s been visiting every week but I just let her stay for about two hours – three hours max (and certainly before it gets dark because I don’t want her want her walking home in the dark).

I find it disturbing that she is allowed to be out for so many hours – on her own- without any concern about exactly WHERE she is.  Am I alone in thinking this way or does the general public feel this is normal and that I’m overacting?