My parents came into town today and whisked Shay off to the park and then fed him lunch and put him down for his nap so that I could have a little time to myself to get stuff done (ah, grocery shopping ALONE, is there anything better? I'm sure some people could think of some stuff, but today that sounded like the best imaginable thing...). I used to go to prenatal yoga all the time during my first pregnancy, but I haven't managed to get to a class this time, so since I had a little bit of freedom, I decided to walk over to the yoga studio in the morning to go to a class. It was lovely, and blissful, to have a little time to myself and some time to think about this new baby -- now that I am past the constant morning sickness, I'm not thinking about being pregnant all the time and so I find myself sometimes remembering "oh yeah, I'm pregnant!"... and then Shay climbs up on something precarious and I have to run to save him, or he asks for a snack and I have to go fix it, so the end of my "oh yeah, I'm pregnant" thought becomes just "well, I guess that's going fine and I'll just go over here and take care of this other thing." So anyway, it was nice to have an hour to just be pregnant, if that makes sense.
But the story that I actually wanted to tell is that as I was walking home, I noticed a disheveled looking man in layers of clothing and blankets standing by a storefront about a half a block away. He looked homeless, which wouldn't in itself have been a surprising sight on the street where I was walking, but what caught my attention was that there were two kids, probably 5 and 7, or 6 and 8, and a dog, with him. I passed by them, and then they started walking behind me. The man was muttering and swearing at people passing by, and cars, and trees. The littler child, a girl, was holding the dog's leash, and I gather that she lagged behind a bit, because I heard the man yell, "Keep up! Don't make me kick your f***ing a**." The swearing, at the kids and at stuff on the street, continued for another block, and I exchanged a horrified glance with a teenage boy walking in front of me as he turned around to see what was going on. I wanted to do something to help the kids, but I worried that anything I might say or do to try to intervene might just make life worse for them. So, hating myself a little bit, I kept walking and they turned the corner off the street where I was walking.
Afterward, I wondered if I should have called child protective services or something? Or, how might I have intervened myself there on the street? If you'd been where I was today, what would you have done?
Wow, V, that is a tough one. I don't know. It's so hard to think of an effective thing to do right there in the moment.
ReplyDeleteHow did the children look? As disheveled/homeless as the man?
Oh dear...that sounds so sad. Maybe you could notify the police, just so they could be on the lookout in that area? I'd imagine that they might be around there regularly.
ReplyDeleteI'm with Amy.
ReplyDeleteAnd, wow, that is upsetting!
Good idea, Amy. And Becky, the one thing that did make me hopeful was that the kids definitely didn't seem disheveled like the man. Though they didn't seem well taken care of in that moment, they looked like they were ordinarily better taken care of, at least in terms of grooming -- so I'm guessing this wasn't their everyday situation. But I still wonder about them, and feel sad.
ReplyDelete