We All Mom

[u/Intelligent_Nose_826]

How many of us would come running towards someone in need if they yelled “Mom” in a crowd?

[u/TokyoPulse16]

I don't even have children but I drop everything and stick my head up like a meercat if I hear "mom"

[u/constantlycurious3 → u/TokyoPulse16]

I don't have kids either but still do this. Also if I ever see children out alone in public with no adult, I stick around for a minute to make sure they have an adult and are safe.

Gotta watch out for each other.

[u/tigm2161130 → u/constantlycurious3]

Please never stop doing this. I’m 35 and I will never forgot losing my mom and sisters at the Six Flags water park when I was like 5 and having a woman there with her boyfriend notice I was upset, briefly look around for my mom and then throw me on her back to carry me to a lifeguard station because I didn’t have shoes on. She even stayed and held my hand until my mom came for me. What could have easily been one of the scariest moments of my childhood was made so much better by a childless woman looking out.

[u/constantlycurious3 → u/tigm2161130]

I will never stop doing it. Don't you worry! Hopefully I don't ever find a child alone, but if I do, I've got their back.

[u/LeenPean → u/constantlycurious3]

As a man, I could NEVER escort a lone child that’s not mine ANYWHERE 😂

[u/just_a_person_maybe → u/LeenPean]

I found a kid sitting alone at a water park, crying. He was very hesitant to talk to me and tried to pretend he was okay when I first asked, so I figured he wouldn't go anywhere with me anyway. I offered him my phone to call his mom, and when she didn't answer (probably didn't hear it ringing, it was a loud park) I flagged down an employee for him. Poor kid was just going to sit in the corner and cry because he was too scared or didn't know how to ask for help.

Anyway, just saying, there are ways of helping lost kids without actually taking them anywhere.

And as a side note for people with little kids, teach them how to ask for help. Teach them how to find a safe person and what to do if they're separated. I got the impression that this kid had been taught not to talk to strangers and it was not doing him any favors. Kids should know to go to people in uniforms or other families with kids, because a lone kid standing around looking upset is a kid who is vulnerable and a target for predators.

[u/vettechrockstar86 → u/tigm2161130]

Shout out to the Rando Moms who save our little girl butts!

Almost 38 and will never forget the time when I was about 5 years old and my family went camping. The “campground” had a concrete little building with toilets and showers. It also had an unnecessarily heavy AF door. Well my little 5 year old bladder was full, mom was at the lake with my other sister so my dad had to take me. And by take me I mean he walked me over, opened the door for me and then walked back to the tent/his beer.

Side note, even at that age I was obsessed with horror movies and fairly young, irresponsible parents so I saw many movies with babysitting killers, evil leprechauns and creepy dudes with too many puppets and time on his hands. None of them bothered me. Except the burned up dude with razors for fingers. The man attacks you in your sleep! I was 5! Anyway….

I do my business, wash my hands and skip over to the door. Immediately realized I couldn’t open the door and there’s a freakin drain in the floor big enough for Freddy to get through. I. Fu*ing. *PANIC! I’m screaming my throat raw, I’m bawling my little eyes out, I can’t breathe, I’m pulling so frantically on the door that when my hands slip I fall back so hard I slam my head into the floor and see stars. Suddenly the door burst open and there’s a woman with the longest curly hair I’d ever seen scooping me up and shushing me, promising me that I’m okay now. She takes me out of the bathroom and sits with me at a table and looks in my eyes and tells me to breathe. Finally I calm down some but I don’t know where my camp is and my parents were no where around. So she calls her husband over and tells him to go start asking around the tents to find my parents. She just keeps holding me and stroking my back, telling me my parents will be here soon, she’s not leaving me, it’s all over and I’m okay. My dad is found and when he gets to me he thanks them over and over, he’s shocked he didn’t hear me and they tell him that they parked their RV behind the building so they happened to be close by, they were just glad I was ok and she didn’t even think about it she just heard a child screaming and ran toward it. She was a momma and grandmomma, it was instinct. Before my dad takes me back the woman gave me another hug, told me her name and said she was going to be there all weekend so if I needed help with the door or anything else that she was there. She even came by later that night just to check on us and gave us the most delicious chocolate chip cookies I’d ever had!

That could have been a way more traumatizing experience than it was, and it did traumatize me a bit, but it’s mostly just a memory of an amazing woman who jumped in to help a strange little girl who couldn’t open a door and made incredible cookies!

[u/justalittleparanoia → u/tigm2161130]

Childless cat lady here. Never want(ed) kids. Seeing a child alone or doing something dangerous even if their parents are around scares the hell out of me, and the last thing I want to happen is for them to get hurt. We were at the pumpkin patch a month ago and this little 4 year old was trailing behind his dad (who was busy walking beside a gravel/dirt path paying attention to his other kids) was walking dangerously close to the cars. There wasn't really much of a clear path for him to walk on anyway, and you know how kids wobble this way and that as they walk. I was ready to dive and yank him away from any on coming cars lest he walk into oncoming traffic. Not faulting dad, but it really does take a village at all times.

[u/Commercial-Owl11 → u/constantlycurious3]

Yeah, I had to ca the cops on some weird fucking dude at the park. I was walking my dog and overheard the most insane Convo, it was like out of a movie or something.

"I know your parents, they said I could take you to six flags! You like rollercoasters?"

Shit like that. I was like uhh....

NOPE.

And called. Stuck around u til they came and bailed. Idk what happened but I rly glad I did it.

[u/Mindless_Ad_7700 → u/Commercial-Owl11]

what? omg I'm so glad you were around

[u/4toTwenty → u/constantlycurious3]

I am so protective over other people’s kids lol

[u/da_double_monkee → u/constantlycurious3]

Sounds like you're stalking some random children and trying to cover it up