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Stranger danger is real, but it can also make it tricky to know how to communicate with your neighbors.
In this story, a dad is taking his little boy for a walk to the park. On the way, they see some kids playing in a fenced in backyard. They ended up having a short conversation with the kids before continuing on their walk, but now, the dad is wondering if it was wrong to talk to the kids. He wasn’t trying to scare their parents who seemed to use the situation as a teaching moment.
What could he have done differently? Let’s read the whole story to decide.
AITA for talking with young neighborhood kids?
My son (2.5 years old) and I (33M) were walking to the park in our neighborhood with my dogs.
It is residential and people generally say hi to my son when walking by.
This makes the neighborhood feel welcoming.
They noticed some kids playing.
On this day, there were two neighborhood girls playing on a flatbed trailer. They were about 6 and 4 years old. The trailer was in a fenced in backyard, but the fence was wire so see-through.
My son stopped and stared saying, “They are sweeping the trailer” and something about leaves.
The girls replied and asked my son his name. They also asked about my dogs.
I wanted to be friendly so told them my son’s name and about my dogs.
The girls’ parents were upset.
We kept it short, as is my son’s attention span, and proceeded on to the park.
Once we rounded the corner and out of site, I heard the girl’s parent reprimanding then about talking to strangers and stranger danger. They reminded the girls they had told them to not talk to strangers before.
Now I felt bad and wondering how could I have handled this better?
AITA?
Could OP have done anything differently?
Let’s see how Reddit responded.
This person doesn’t think he did anything wrong.
Another person doesn’t see anything wrong with the interaction.
This person says not to worry about it.
If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about an artist who made sure to leave the walls of her home blank and boring before moving out, even though they were covered with gorgeous murals before then.
But one person points out the girls’ parents’ perspective.
The girls’ parents probably didn’t hear the conversation or see the little boy. If they had, they probably would’ve realized that there was no danger.
I can see why OP is upset by overhearing the parents reprimand their children because he talked to them, but I don’t think he did anything wrong.
Maybe the girls’ parents should be outside with them instead of inside.
Stranger danger is real, but he wasn’t dangerous.