Trying Not To Judge But.....

Yesterday my family and I headed out to Chuck E. Cheeses for something close to a nightmare experience. Honestly, I hate being in crowds, especially when my kids are involved. Crowds and noise make me feel less than nice. Not sure if it is normal but for me I start feeling claustrophobic and confused. The noise and everything else makes it hard for me to concentrate.

Now that I am a mom, I feel less confused and more angry. Not being able to hear yourself or see your kid in the crowd contributes to that.

Chuck E. Cheese gets crowded enough but on a day when school is closed man 0 man, it is a down right jungle.

We got there at 1:30 p.m. and it took 30 minutes to get in the door. I wasn't feeling good so my cousin's kids chased after mine. Honestly, there wasn't much chasing that had to be done. There was more pulling. It appears that my children are more like me and were a bit overwhelmed. They had a fab time and my cousin's girls were awesome.

But....about an hour and half into our time there, my sister finds a baby girl alone. The baby was only about 13 months old. She was walking but not yet talking. My sister looked for her mom for a 1/2 hour before handing the baby over to the management. They walked around for a while too. I asked the manager if they could turn the music off and announce over the PA they had a lost girl. She informed me that the PA was broken and I asked if they had called the police yet and she said no. I was surprised when I saw her still walking around with the baby as we were leaving.

Leading my kids through the crowd, I noticed a women looking around. She was holding her necklace and searching the crowd. My cousin's kids are 5'9 and I couldn't find them in the crowd so I don't know what this women was thinking. If my baby was missing I would have demanded the music be shut off and there would have been no PA system necessary. Everyone would have heard me.

I walked over and touched her arm asking if she was looking for someone. She turned and breathed, "yes". I asked if she was looking for a baby girl and she said "yes". As I told her the manager had the baby her friend said, "that lady has her over there." They ran over and I watched the women hug the manager.

What is wrong with people? I can't even imagine what was going through this women's head. I can't imagine why she hadn't gone to the manager in the first place. The baby was so young she didn't even know to be afraid of strangers. She just hung onto whoever was holding her.

Sweet baby girl, I will think of your beautiful little, trusting face for a long time.