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Adoptrussiablogger, I've just read this section of your blog and what you say is so true!!
Antonina was five and a half years old when home and would go up to anyone. She thought all men were her new daddy and would have happily took any strangers hand and walked off with them. For me it was a nightmare and I found some adults didn't help matters. One day we were strolling along the marina and a man (walking with his wife) offered Antonina some of his ice cream. I thought it was really stupid of him and told him so! Then one day we were in the park and I was relaxing on the grass whilst Antonina was playing on the big climbing frame/slide. She was playing with the children of another couple and at one point I heard the man say to his wife that he was going to play with the kids for a while. I didn't think anything of it until I heard this excited WOOOO HOOO kind of voices and looked up to see Antonina sitting on this mans knee coming down the tube-slide together. I was livid!
My approach was simple especially as you have to take into account that Antonina's english nor spanish were good enough to explain properly. I firmly told her on many occassions that No, do not talk to anyone we don't know, No, don't cuddle anyone we don't know, No, we don't hold anyone's hand we don't know. I took the hard line.
I am pleased to say that with time I feel I don't need to worry so much and of course its human nature that we do talk to strangers in a nice kind of way. To give you an example, last summer we spent alot of time at the waterpark and if we were in line waiting our turn we would sometimes engage or be engaged in light conversation about the weather and on more than one occassion if a family sitting next to us had a child Antonina's age of course it was nice that the girls would play in the water together. So one day Antonina clicked and whilst I was pulling up in the parking lot of a large supermarket she very seriously said "Mummy, I need to ask you something". I said Ok sweetie whats on your mind. She said "are we or are we NOT allowed to talk to people we don't know?". I parked the car and turned to talk to her and told her the truth. I told her that at first I was very wary of who she spoke to as some people are not as nice as others etc, I told her that I honestly thought she would wonder off with someone and leave me. She threw her hands up to her face and took in her breathe and said "Mummy, I would NEVER walk off with anyone and I would NEVER leave you". I was pleased and felt that the message had got through....
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