Well, may as well, seems they're doomed anyway.
Dd2 is 7, there is a girl who lives just around the corner who she gets on very well with. She is 9. There are also a few other children she plays with who live in the other direction aged between 8 and 10. No-one lives more than 6 houses away. We live on a modern estate in a sleepy village.
We are quite happy for dd2 to play with any of these children, and call for them on her own as long as she asks, and tells us if she's going in anyone's house. The 9yo is not allowed to walk along the road unaccompanied however, and if we let dd2 go in that direction, her mum always brings her back telling dd2 how dangerous it is. Which annoys me. I tell her she mustn't go with someone she doesn't know etc etc, but I really don't want her saying it's 'dangerous' to just walk round the corner.
So either we go with her (which really annoys dd2) or send dd1 (12) with her. For a while she seemed happy with dd1 taking her, but then she started asking for a phone call if all 3 of them came back round here together. When I asked why, dd1 rolled her eyes, and the other 2 said it was in case a nasty man put them in a van! So we tried to phone and she didn't sodding answer! Even when we sent dd1 round to collect something, she insisted on accompanying her back saying it was dangerous. How does she think she gets to school?
A while ago she came round and said 'did you see on the police Facebook page?' no, why would I? Well apparently a child was attempt snatched in the next village. I took this quite seriously, and reiterated expected safe behaviour to the kids and kept a tighter rein for a while. I couldn't find anything on Facebook though, and since then she has alleged 3 more times about various snatching and suspicious behaviour, so I can only assume it's lies, since no-one else seems to know about it.
Several times I have heard the 9yo passing on tips from her mum to dd2 of how to deal with an abductor, and dd2 is very much looking forward to being able to bite someone's hand if he tries to take her.
It's very awkward because she'll bring her dd round to play, but then about 6 of them will want to go to the park, which I'm fine with, but this girl isn't allowed to go without an adult, which is really annoying when we wouldn't usually accompany our own child, if there's loads of them together. It's only at the end of the road.
But now I'm really bloody annoyed. The mum came round while I was at work to see dh, and with no preamble whatsoever started showing him some kind of compilation of videos supposedly of children being taken. Dh was so shocked that he didn't say a thing, but clearly the message is that we're shit parents, and our children will be murdered any day now!!