{"id":791,"date":"2014-11-05T06:00:30","date_gmt":"2014-11-05T06:00:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/yourglamourconnection.com\/blog\/?p=791"},"modified":"2014-10-27T22:55:34","modified_gmt":"2014-10-27T22:55:34","slug":"stranger-danger","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/yourglamourconnection.com\/blog\/stranger-danger\/","title":{"rendered":"Stranger Danger"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Mom<\/a><\/p>\n

From the time we are little, we are taught about the danger of strangers<\/i>.\u00a0 We\u2019re told scary things about how they lurk with menacing plans.<\/p>\n

My dad owned a small trucking company.\u00a0 When I say small, I mean small as in my mom was the other driver, and we kids were the set-up crew.<\/p>\n

Dad was often the stranger<\/i> who stopped and helped the car on the side of the road with the hood up.\u00a0 It wasn\u2019t uncommon for us to find a lady with a car full of kids.\u00a0 Dad would tinker on her car and soon have it up and running.\u00a0 He always had extra fan belts, duct tape and rope on hand, saying \u201cyou never know when someone could use it.\u201d\u00a0 The people he helped often thanked him for his kindness with tears running down their faces, but Dad didn\u2019t do it for the glory or any reward.\u00a0 He knew it was the right thing to do, and he quietly helped strangers<\/i>.<\/p>\n

I remember one late night in the middle of a snowstorm Dad saw a car stopped on the side of the freeway.\u00a0 He stopped and helped get the man\u2019s car running.\u00a0 As my dad was leaving, the man gave him his card and said he wanted to help out my dad in return someday.\u00a0 That man was an internationally known dentist.\u00a0 It just so happened that not long after that stormy night, I was in a serious bicycle accident.\u00a0 I knocked out three of my teeth.\u00a0 That man was the one that came to the hospital, and made sure I got the care I needed; even though my parents were in-between insurance companies.\u00a0 This stranger<\/i> saved large portions of my upper jaw bone.<\/p>\n

My mom loves people.\u00a0 She says she never meets a stranger<\/i>.\u00a0 One time we were out hiking, my mom went ahead to make lunch for us at the car.\u00a0 When I got to the end of the trail, I saw Mom sitting on the tailgate of our tan Toyota pickup truck surrounded by bikers, laughing with them and giving out sandwiches.\u00a0 I imagine some women would be horrified to find a pack of bikers around her vehicle, but not my mom.\u00a0 She offered them food and drew them with her wit.\u00a0 She learned one of them was a fan of Shakespeare.\u00a0 I\u2019ll never forget seeing them quoting Shakespeare to each other over sandwiches of white bread, bologna, and that horrid cheese you have to unwrap the plastic from.<\/p>\n

For me, the worst pains of my childhood didn\u2019t come from strangers<\/i>.\u00a0 It came from those who were in a position of trust who violated that trust.<\/p>\n

So, when I became a mother I had a decision to make; to teach my children about the danger of strangers<\/i> or to teach them that they needed to trust their inner voice, regardless of who the person was.\u00a0 I chose the latter.<\/p>\n

This is what I tell my kids. \u00a0If someone asks you to keep a secret from your parents it isn\u2019t okay\u2014ever.\u00a0 If someone touches you in your privates it isn\u2019t okay\u2014ever.\u00a0 I tell them they are people and their feelings and opinions matter.\u00a0 They know the voice of what is right and what is wrong speaks inside of them.\u00a0 I tell them to listen to that voice, and if they do, they will recognize danger.\u00a0 I tell them that while using that voice as a guide, they can have enriching experiences like meeting a biker that is a poet; a dentist that will save their jaw; a single mom whose tears of gratitude will teach lessons.\u00a0 I try to show them, like my parents showed me, that helping others when it may not be convenient is always the right thing to do.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Our new Polish friends<\/p><\/div>\n

I think they\u2019re learning it.\u00a0 The other day at Costco I started a discussion with a couple in the line behind me.\u00a0 \u00a0As we stood out by the carts they told me they were from Poland.\u00a0 We talked of hard work and their years of living under communism.\u00a0 They told me what makes a good Kielbasa sausage and the pride they feel in their children. They hugged and kissed me, told me I was beautiful and a good mother.\u00a0 Soon after, my daughter told me she wants them over for dinner.\u00a0 I do too\u2026 and after our discussion, I had better buy the right Kielbasa sausage.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

From the time we are little, we are taught about the danger of strangers.\u00a0 We\u2019re told scary things about how they lurk with menacing plans. My dad owned a small trucking company.\u00a0 When I say small, I mean small as in my mom was the other driver, and we kids were the set-up crew. Dad […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14,261,7],"tags":[248,208,238,237,62,207,133,220,72,246,224,227],"class_list":["post-791","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-life","category-mom-2","category-philosphy","tag-blog","tag-greene","tag-hotness","tag-how-to-embrace-your-inner-hotness","tag-kids","tag-leta","tag-leta-greene","tag-leta-maughan","tag-love","tag-maughan","tag-mom","tag-mother"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/yourglamourconnection.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/791","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/yourglamourconnection.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/yourglamourconnection.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/yourglamourconnection.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/yourglamourconnection.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=791"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"http:\/\/yourglamourconnection.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/791\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":815,"href":"http:\/\/yourglamourconnection.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/791\/revisions\/815"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/yourglamourconnection.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=791"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/yourglamourconnection.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=791"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/yourglamourconnection.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=791"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}