I hope no one saw that...

So I was telling my Mom about the last story. The one in which my 4-year-old daughter snapped the cat's collar on her and took off running to show how far she can run. The one that ended with the rope snapping taught and my daughter getting pulled back. That one.

It was a little scary, but also a little funny after the fact.

When I told my Mom the story, her response was, "I hope no one saw that!"

I laughed, "Why?"

"Because someone might have gotten the wrong idea and called the police."

I started to get a little mad.

"Who would call the police on that?"

"You never know," she said.

I understood what she was getting at, but I was still mad at the paranoia.

"Hey, if anyone ever tried to take Julia away for something that stupid, I would make their lives a living hell."

It got me thinking about today. People are sooo protective of the children. Sometimes, we go a little far in some areas and not far enough in other areas.

Think about it, when I grew up, it was common practice that mothers would go into the store and leave their kids in the parking lot. I ought to know, I was left out in the parking lot in my Mom's van with my other siblings. Rather, we were victims that were left out in the hot sun with no air conditioning and no water, with only each other to cling to for comfort. Just kidding Mom!

Actually, if one was to come across the scene, it would look us kids were having a great time!

Sometimes, we would come up with activities to amuse ourselves. A popular activity was steering wheel rides. One of us would sit on the bottom part of the steering wheel and hold on with our hands. A sibling or two would spin the steering wheel back and forth to give a nice ride. It was great... I mean, it was a great way to misbehave, and now completely impossible what with the locking steering wheels that cars have today.

Another activity while left in a hot van while your Mom shopped was to honk the horn. Oh sure, it doesn't sound too fun, but it became a game by seeing how many times you could honk the horn before our Mom came out pissed off. You could play this with a defiant sibling honking or daring someone to honk. Invariably, my Mom would be checking out when someone at the checkout would comment, "Your kids have been honking the horn." She'd come to window and glare out at us. We'd stop right away. We pushed buttons, but we weren't stupid.

Nowadays, you're just asking to get reported for child neglect if you leave your kid out in the car for just a second.

I was witness to this taken to extremes. When I worked at Pizza Hut, our shift manager at the time called the police on a customer, whose kids were waiting in the car outside some 10 feet away while their Mom sat inside waiting for the pizza. It's a good thing he came too because what with people coming and going the Mom that far away, they might have been without aid for 30 whole seconds.

It's amazing how far we've come. We've come from kids being left out in cars, kids in no car seats and kids not even buckled in to every type of safety device holding our kids into something. Don't get me wrong. It's probably a good idea, but as the attention Britney Spears is getting for her hair-brained child seat techniques shows, people are just a tad sensitive.

I joked to my Mom that today, she'd be put in jail many times over for her actions in the past, but that's just the way it was back then. Leaving your kids in the car was convenience. Now it's abuse.

Same with the leash story. Back then, it was always funny because kids do silly things. Now it's your fault for not anticipating their silly actions.