Honest who would want to be a parent in today's society!

Sometimes my life reads like an Eastenders script and here is today's episode. That sounds quite glib but it is hiding a deeply unsettling feeling that despite what we do for our kids and what we teach them and how sensible they are they just simply are not safe!

Imogen walks home from school most days with at least 2 or 3 friends and she mentioned to me the other day that a strange man had pulled over in his van and got out and walked behind them. When they crossed the road he did not. We weren't to sure if this was suspect or not so Imogen and I discussed stranger danger and walking home etc. We thought no more of it until today when I received a phone call from the school asking me if Imogen had reported a white van with blacked out windows. Initially I said no but then remembered Imogen had mentioned this to me. The school had had an incident with a white van with blacked out windows and Imogen's incident had come to light.

Now so far this is all just circumstantial and no threats have been made that I am aware of, the school have been awesome they have PSCO attached to the school who will be involved and the head of year has been active in supporting the kids walking home from school. But...it all just makes for a slightly unsettled feeling. Is my child in danger are some of her friends potentially in danger. What can we do as parents to help the kids deal with this. Imogen seems fairly pragmatic but I think that this has bothered her a bit. Her friends have been awesome, 6 of the boys in her year walked her home this evening!!! (Should I be worried about 6 boys walking my daughter home!!! LOL)

Honest, and I know this is going to sound cliche but this just did not happen when I was a kid. I used to go out during the summer hols first thing in the morning and would not be home till tea time. There were no mobile phones so my parents did not have any way of contacting us. I don't ever remember anything dodgy. Poor youth of today I honestly think that their childhood is no where near as carefree as mine was. We had stranger danger but not to the extent we have today. My 11 year old does not go down the park to play, I lived there at the age of 11. I am saddened that my daughter will not have the childhood I had and why on earth would anyone want to bring a child into this world and expose them to the scum and bad people that are permeating our society. Even if this is an innocent incident it has marred her journey to a fro school and left a black mark on her childhood!

To top this all off she is already a victim of what is classified as sexual abuse, a boy in her primary school with learning difficulties kissed her and when she asked him not to he did it again and then threatened to hurt her. What have we done to our world!!!!!!

I am off now to spend some time with my daughter and make her feel safe!
TTFNx