That occurred to me too. We didn’t have a car and lived less than 2 miles from the hospital. If my wife didn’t have stitches we would have walked home with a stroller. I asked about it and was told the hospital can’t prevent you from leaving without a car seat, but will call the police if they think you’re going to get into a car.

As it was a friend (with a car seat) gave us a ride.

On #3- “If your child is in a place where they cannot get help from an adult…” The biggest problem is most adults won’t help, don’t want to get involved, are so fear-based they don’t stop abductions, some won’t call 911 (????). That has to do with any sort of violence. They don’t want to testify in Court either. Now, when it comes to accidents, usually most people will help in some way. When it comes to rape? The victim screams for help and hardly anyone will respond, sometimes no one. When violence occurs in front of a crowd of people, almost all will watch it happen, take pictures, and even video it. I don’t believe we can expect that an adult would come to the aid of a young child. It would be great if we could. I taught my children that if they needed to summon adults? Scream FIRE. As young adults, I asked them recently what they do if they need help quickly. I reminded my son, who smiled, and said, “That is right. You said that people will come running if they think there is a fire, but won’t come if there is a violent crime occurring out of fear for themselves.” Not a bad thing to remember. At the least your chances increase of someone calling 911 & maybe the rare person who cares enough to really help will come.

Lola, sorry I hadn’t responded. Thank you for the kind words, also. The way I had to raise my son would surprise you and possibly some others, considering how he grew up to be the man he is. For the first twelve years of his life, my son suffered from Epilepsy. This was a Left Partial Complex Seizure condition. To simplify that, it meant he had seizures in the Left Parietal Region of the brain. Since he had Petit Mal Seizures, and NOT Grand Mal Seizures, I had a choice – to medicate or not. I did the necessary research and decided not to medicate him. Either he would have suffered serious side effects or would have those Petit Mal Seizures. My decision meant that I had to be with him 24/7. This meant holding his hand everywhere we went together (he could fall at any moment, step out in front of a car, etc…). The seizures were less than a minute when they occurred… There were major coordination issues, learning disabilities, and he stuttered terribly. Since I was homeschooling his sister, who didn’t have Epilepsy, but had a gifted mind that needed a lot of challenges…? I elected to homeschool them both and take as much responsibility as necessary. After six months of speech therapy, with my son stuttering as badly as he had before the therapy, I decided to take a swing at that. So, I did some research on stuttering and began my son’s therapy. It took just over a month. Of course, that meant I also worked harder on teaching him to speak, enunciate, and pronounce his words. Each of my children were required to read aloud each day to me. I taught them to do that properly, in a more formal way. As adults, both are complimented for their speaking skills. We covered (12) subjects per day, 4 hours per day, and spent the rest of the day going to parks, outings, and all the adventures I got to have when I was a child. My son got to do everything other children did, while his mother was not far away (if he began having Seizures, I had to take him home). My daughter helped to keep an eye on her brother, too. I would sit at the park for hours, reading a book, and occupying myself so they could play with other children (normal interaction). At the age of 12, my son stopped having Seizures. He and his sister went to Public School then. Until he became an adult, I worked very hard to teach him to be independent while also never allowing him to be in harm’s way. Sure there were times he did what he chose. But that deal we made sure influenced him (offered him $1,000 at the age of 18 if he made it without breaking any major bones). He did and I paid him!

Since my son was raised in a more protective manner, you’d sure wonder how he became so independent & tough? I asked him two nights ago (he came for an overnight visit). He told me that it was by my example and everything I taught him more than anything he had experienced. I think both of my kids will hear these words long after I am going, “It isn’t me always being right, it is about you doing the right thing.” Before they each moved out, we had a conversation about the tool chest. I told them over their lifetime, I was more than their mother, the memory-maker, homeschool teacher, etc… (wore a lot of hats, LOL)… I took the job of stocking their tool chests very seriously. Before the move-out, I talked with each one of my children. I gave them each a verbal list of the tool chest contents and asked them if they knew how to use them. When we talk these days, with daughter 21, and son almost 20? On less and less frequent occasions, there are questions, “What would you do mother?” I then ask them back, “Hmmm, what do you THINK is the right thing to do?” Sometimes, we discuss the outcomes of making different decisions. I always affirm each is to always make the decision and take responsibility, but I don’t mind talking about anything. They each know I expect them to live their own lives, support them both in their decisions, and support their moves, aspirations, and dreams.

Arguement ensued followed with more explaination of your background. Relayed the 9 -year-old-on-the-subway story which really bothered him. At which point I just laughed and reminded him that at the age of ten he was driving a 15-passenger van full of church members around a small town in Mexico. Never one to question his parents judgement or safety standards, this put a whole new light on things.

I told him although I can’t imagine letting our son ride the subway by himself at 9 (because we don’t have anything of the sort where we live) at the same time I can’t imagine letting my son at 10 drive a van full of congregants (because I don’t live in a rural town in Mexico). However, of the two, I thought I’d let him ride the subway first because at least then I’d only be “risking” my son’s life vs. his life plus anyone on the street or in the vehicle with him.

So, although this very long conversation meant I was up until 2am, I slept much better knowing that I had made a break-through w/ dh. Who knows? Maybe next time I let my kids jump off the couch w/out holding their hands, he won’t worry (quite as much). Thanks for the conversation starter!

There was an episode of “King of the Hill”, where Hank’s son Bobby is suspended from school for bringing a putty knife to his shop class (after Hank had told him to).

When Hank told the principal “that’s just asinine”, the principal replied: “I’m sorry Hank, but if I showed any tolerance, then we couldn’t call it ‘zero tolerance’”.