Scary thought

Three days a week my in-laws watch Jake and Hannah. Hannah gets on and off the bus there and Jake, of course, is there all day. The kids absolutely love going over there. Jake told me he doesn't like going to school because there are rules and stuff. Obviously at Grandma's he gets away with a lot more mischief.

My in-laws live on a pretty busy road and Bob takes them outside to play quite a bit. They'll occasionally play in the backyard but more often then not they play out in the front and on the driveway. I've never really thought much about it because I know that Bob keeps a very close eye on them and never lets them get anywhere near the street so that has never really been an issue for me. But tonight I was talking to a woman that lives further down the street and she was asking me about the kids and what they were doing for vacation week. I told her that they were at Bob and Gail's as usual and she said "Oh, so that's your little boy that I always see outside with Bob." I have to say, that sort of freaked me out. Not only do they live on a fairly busy street but they are across from a T-intersection with another fairly well traveled road. I'm sure if people drive by there on a regular basis they probably see Jake out there with Bob all the time (Hannah too but she's there for much less time each week). Bob does a great job with the kids but he is 76 years old and broke his hip a number of years ago. He's not exactly spry if you know what I mean. Anyway, when this lady told me she notices Bob out there playing with Jake it occurred to me that anyone else who saw this 4-year old playing outside every day with this elderly man could very easily pull up, grab Jake (or Hannah), toss him in the car and take off. Bob wouldn't be able to do much about it except call 911.

Of course what he lacks in physical agility he more than makes up for in mental acuity. If someone did try to take one of the children he'd probably not only be able to describe everything about the person and their car he'd probably rig up some sort of MacGyver-like trap before the culprit got 100 yards down the road but like I said, it's still a scary thought.