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Mom flees robber, leaves 4 year old daughter
Re: Mom flees robber, leaves 4 year old daughter
Mothers are easy victims. They are less likely to pay attention to their surroundings because they are more focused on their kids. Looking at the video, the mother was talking to her child. Crime is about opportunity. The mugger saw an opportunity and took it.
This is one of the reasons I try not to do any shopping, go to the ATM, etc. at night with my kids. I also try to park under lights and next to parking lot video cameras, or in the view of the police sky-cams that are set up in parking lots.
I often fuss at T not to dally when we get in the car, get in, buckle up and lock the door. I don't want us to be an easy target for a criminal.
As to the poor mom in the video, bless her heart. I don't know what she must have gone through in this ordeal. But, I am not going to jump on the Blame the Mom train. Ya'll can carry on with this foolishness if you please.
I'd like to think I would've tossed my purse and all my belongings far away from me and took off running with my kiddo. Obviously none of us know for sure what we would do, but my purse is not worth my life or my kid's life. Take it, everything else can be replaced.
Leaving a 4 year old alone with an armed stranger is merely "imperfect"???
We're not talking about moms who give their kids juice or let them watch too much TV.
Click me, click me!
So, you're saying if it would be better if the kid, who is out of frame and for all we know running off down the street, was close to mom? Mom who is being attacked and cut by the robber?
Right. This makes tons of sense.
This is what I was thinking. Why not just give him the purse?
I'm not sure why it's hard to understand that when you are panicked you might not do something of sound mind that you would normally do.
Why do you think the military, police, doctors, fire fighters, etc train in simulated life threatening (or life saving) situations in order to perfect what they would do under stress.
It's very different going through a scenario in your head than actually going through it in real life with your sympathetic nervous system going.
Plus as someone said the robber seemed to be fixated on the mom and the purse and didn't pay the child much attention, so maybe the mom thought if she ran the robber would follow and the girl would run the other way out of harm.
Team I'm not judging.
Just this week a mosquito came at my head from out of nowhere and my immediate response was to scream "No!" and throw a shoe at it. At a mosquito. I threw a shoe. Honestly. It scared the reason right out of me.
I hope you don't mind that I loled at that....:-)
THIS. When DH and I were robbed at knifepoint I followed directions, stayed calm, and gave the men what they wanted in hopes that they wouldn't hurt us or try to take us anywhere. In fact, they discussed taking me with them to an ATM but I talked them out of it and offered to give them our ATM codes instead.
I'm pretty da#n confident that I would not run away and leave my child. I will continue to judge. I mean, heck, she ran away like twice. It's not like she turned to run, then turned back to grab her kid. She didn't even run back when he put a knife TO HER CHILD! I'd be on my knees screaming, "Take me and leave her alone!"
Based on one story I watched they said that the robber put the knife to the little girl after the mom first ran away, so no, he didn't just follow the mom and leave the girl. And they she tries to get into the store and leave the girl out there with the guy? I mean, really, I wouldn't judge if she ran at first but then tried to grab her kid, but she just left her in her dust. I'm usually not judgey of people in intense situations because I know people don't react logically, but I actually have been there, and I can't imagine reacting how she did after my own experience. It's like how people always tell me, "Oh, MY DH would have kicked some a$$!" when I tell them our story, to which I say, "Well, then your DH would probably have gotten stabbed and you would have been abducted, while my DH and I came out unscathed."
I don't know. I would have a hard time telling my kid to just run, not knowing where they would go. In to the street? Around a corner and keep going so that when the ordeal with me and the robber was over, I would have no earthly idea where he was?
Honestly, I think I might have done the same thing. Take the chance that my kids' safest place is in their car and get myself and get the maniac away from the boys. At least in/near the car, if it went badly for me, police could find teh registration and know who to call. If my sons took off running, who knows how long they would be gone before someone could figure out who their father was to call him?
I'm on team "you do ish you never think you'd do in that scenario." I was in grad school, getting ready for the day when a dude climbed in to my roommate's window to steal a computer. Did I (a) pick up the phone and dial 911 (b) hide or (c) sit down with him in my kitchen and have a frank conversation about why I did not buy his claim that my roommate told him he could come in to our house via the window, ending in a debate about whether or not it sucked worse for me to be robbed or him not be believed, and ultimately let him out the front door?
If you guessed "c", you'd be right. I actually CALLED MY ROOMMATE (who was not yet in his lab) and NOT 911. In hindsight it was probably safer for me - had I called the cops the guy could have flipped out on me. As it was, I ended up safe.
So I don't know - I would like to *think* I'd drop everything, pick up my kid and run. But I also know that in that moment, you just do the weirdest stuff. I'm just really glad the kid and mom are OK, and I don't envy the mom in the slightest. She is going to be in therapy for a DAMN long time with the guilt over not doing what I am 1000% sure she wish she had done, particularly since it's now fodder for public dissection.
I am a runner, knitter, scientist, DE-IVF veteran, and stage III colon cancer survivor.