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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

To think DH should call social services about this

5 replies

Mittensthekitten · 01/08/2013 14:20

Maybe I'm overreacting but this is bothering me.

A few days ago, DH was on his way back from taking the car to the garage and saw a very little boy aged about 2 standing alone at the side of a busy main road. He was so alarmed he went round the roundabout and came back up to look again and the child was there, definitely alone. Hubby pulled over and was just deciding what to do (he's a big, rather intimidating-looking guy, although a very kind/gentle person). He then saw a couple of other people approach the child so he joined them. The kid wouldn't say anything but pointed vaguely across the road, and one of the other people crossed over and walked up the road and said there was an open door up there, so the group of them walked the child across the road and up to the house. They knocked, and a lady came out, so they asked her if this was her child. She said 'yes' and they then told her they'd found him at the other side of the very busy road, further down the road. She just kind of rolled her eyes and said something lame like 'Oh dear' and then shut the door.

I think this is a REALLY bizarre way to react to a group of strangers arriving at the door with your child and finding out that your very tiny tot has crossed the road unaccompanied and wandered off. I know not everyone reacts the same and can possibly understand why she hadn't realised he'd wandered off (MAYBE) but the story made me uneasy and I felt DH should phone SS to follow up, but he says that's an overreaction.

OP posts:
JamieandtheMagicTorch · 01/08/2013 14:22

I'd phone the police, 101

Mittensthekitten · 01/08/2013 14:22

Just to add - so as not to drip feed - we've just moved to a new town so it may be that people let their kids play out a lot, but that doesn't change the fact that this kid was tiny and also at the other side of a very busy road.

OP posts:
worldgonecrazy · 01/08/2013 14:23

It wouldn't hurt to phone SS to report his worries. It may have been a one-off and the woman just extremely embarassed, or it may be a pattern that SS are already aware of. Either way, it won't hurt. SS aren't going to take a child away for just one incident like this.

Ham69 · 01/08/2013 14:24

That's disgraceful. Report immediately before next time he's not so lucky.

MissStrawberry · 01/08/2013 14:51

Report. If different people see this don't report they could all think it is just a one off. If all of them reported it the SS would hopefully join the dots and realise this child needs protecting.

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