We have been spending every moment possible together as a family and enjoying every second of it. Well, except for a few VERY scary moments at a local store this weekend. It started out as a great family outing. Lunch and a visit with Santa. Now, Izzy doesn't believe in Santa and Asher is scared to death of him, but Izzy still thinks it is super fun to do all the Christmas traditions, and I love a good photo op.
Scene:
Bass Pro Shop, have you been there? It is like gigantic and there are bears with giant claws, right next to a aisle of nostalgic candy. Kids love it. It is always hectic and busy...like the Walmart for Hunters, but trade seeing people in pajamas for camo. Add 2,000 extra people for the holidays and tons of North Pole decorations and you have the picture. It was busy and crowded. We were walking in a single file line through the North Pole and Izzy was a few feet in front of me when in a split second a woman in aisle grabbed him by the arm and yanked him out of sight. It took me a few seconds to process what happened, and before I could react, I see Izzy break away from her grip with a crazy self defense move and he ran back behind Daddy. I'm still frozen and trying to process. Hubby is walking with absolutely no clue of the events unfolding behind him. The lady attempts AGAIN but this time goes for his shoulder/neck and he swats her away. She happened to look up and see my face, then it hit her. She looked over and realized she was grabbing my kid, not hers. She apologized quickly and proceeded to grab her son by the neck and pull him down the aisle screaming. Izzy was terrified. I was shocked. Hubby was clueless.
Finally, when my brain kicked in and fully processed, I was A HOT MESS OF ANGER. I wanted to find that woman and rip her apart. Not only should she not treat her child like that, I really thought for those few moments, she was trying to steal my child. Then when I realized it was an accident, it still made me mad that she handled him in such a way. When I explained to Hubby, he was angry and shocked like me. I took a few seconds to talk to Izzy and let him know how proud I was of him. I watched him fight off someone who could have very easily taken him. He did great. I told him next time, scream STRANGER! at the top of his lungs and he said, "Um, screaming makes my throat hurt, I really don't like it. I probably won't do that." Oh Izzy. For the rest of the night he was attached to me like glue. If we leave our house, he clutches my hand. He is still terrified.
Last night, we were driving through our neighborhood and he realized that each house has a number. This is the convo that followed that thought.
Iz: "Why would you put your number on your house? Strangers will know where you live!"
Me: "Well, if we didn't our friends, family and the postman would never find us."
Iz: "Are you kidding me?!? Forget the mail! Who even cares! I don't want to be stolen! I don't want our house to be robbed because you put our number on the front of our house! This is just crazy! Take it down Mom! Don't you know that lady could find out our address now and that would be horrible. I want to live at home forever. Please don't ever let someone take me."
I am just so devastated. While in some ways, this is good practice and makes all those warnings so very real, I just hate that he has to be scared to make the realization. He has mentioned it several times every night since. Sunday night during dinner he said, "Mommy, you are the best Mommy and I don't ever want someone to take me away from you." I wanted to cry.
Moral of the Story:
People are crazy. Hunting Walmarts are packed and people will cut you to see Santa. Even if you are over-protective like me, it can happen in a flash. Keep your kids close, like on your hip. Santa will understand if you have to use Mace, it's for the kids.
Looking back, I wish my brain would've worked faster. I wish I would've defended Izzy even if it meant fighting that crazy lady off. In crazy situations, my brain goes into slow motion mode, and maybe this is Gods way of keeping me out of jail...but, for this one time, I wouldn't have minded. I was totally dressed for the news.
Oh, and we never did get to see Santa. Turns out people line up and get cards like days before. We don't have that kind of time and I am not going back to encounter more crazies. We saw him from afar, we wrote him letters and we will bake cookies. All from the safety of our home.
P.S.
I am adding those leash backpacks to my kids Christmas list. (joke. Maybe)
