Children: Cannot Be Trusted

Parents cannot trust their little ones. They have to be there for them because curious minds are insatiable. My mother was aware of that and maybe saved my life.

We were on a ship and I was just under three years old. Children ate the evening meal first, were put into a creche, then parents ate afterward. The first day, my mother observed the young lady in charge of the children was more interested in her nails than her charges. Dad wanted to get to dinner, insisting I would be fine. Mum insisted they stand outside the creche for a while.

My older brother and I on the liner. Going back a bit in time

Very soon the door handle dropped, the door opened and I toddled onto the deck of the ocean liner. Had I gone over the side, no one would have even heard the splash. My mother went in to she the young attendant still doing here nails and blissfully unaware of my departure. A brief but emphatic reminder from my mother of the young lady's responsibility was delivered.

After that, every time I was dropped off I was met by this very attentive staff member who never let me out of her sight. When my parents came to pick me up, she was never more than a metre away from me. It's amazing what threats to a person's well being can do.

Children are the parent's responsibility and if they have to be placed in someone else's care, the parents must be sure they are going to protect the child as they would. Kiddies are too inexperienced to see danger. That's what care givers are for, to see those dangers for them and gradually teach them to be aware of such. That is why I say children cannot be trusted.