Do they really listen to what you say?

Granddaddy and I were at a local Costco yesterday when the following took place. As we were pulling into our parking spot a couple were standing outside their car with their little girl who appeared to be Annabelle's age. I made the comment to Granddaddy to watch her because you never know which direction she might go.

After we were parked and got out of the car, I noticed the trunk was still open but neither parent was in view. Then I noticed the Daddy was walking back from parking his buggy which wasn't all that close by, maybe five or six cars away and on the opposite side of the road. I didn't see the mother or the little girl so I assumed they had gone on before, maybe back to the store for something. I was surprised to see the mother walking back behind the cars and even further away than the daddy...without the child. It was a bit shocking because I didn't see the child at all. Now bear in mind she was a tiny little girl around two years old, more or less.
Mommy called out to her. I turned around to see that baby standing by the back door of their car, holding onto the door handle.

If that child had wandered away from that car she could have been crushed by a car before anyone could have done anything about it. Remember, we didn't even see her once we got into our parking spot. Those parents totally relied on that little two-year old girl to do as they said.

Knowing my children and my grandchildren as I did/do I would never have taken my hand off of them for a split second. Children don't know enough about dangers to be able to make the decision to do what their parents tell them to do. It has nothing to do with whether or not you have control over your children. Children will still be children and even if the parents were still within eye-site of their child, they could never have stopped a disasterous ending, had that child made a made dash into traffic. Not only would those parents have been devastated; so would the person who hit the child.

It's so easy to see our children as being so much more mature than they really are. Especially when there are older siblings in the family. Maybe it was a cultural thing. Perhaps they expected more from their child than I think we can afford to expect from a two-year old. I just pray this family never has to live with a bad decision with this child. And yes, the mother said the child had just turned two. Just a month or so's difference in her and Annabelle. Under the best of circumstances it's a dangerous world for those little ones, and yes, there are times we've all trusted our kids a little too much. I also pray our little ones don't ever have to suffer from one moment of accidental neglect. But this wasn't an accidental neglect from my point of view.