Today, the entire family trooped down to West Coast Park for an outing since daddy is available. This is the first time I have been to this park and wow! It is huge! But I think I prefer Pasir Ris Park 🙂
Whenever I am out like this, I like to observe the children and their caregivers. How some caregivers never give their charges any slack to do what they want but are always tailing them around, forbiding them to run too fast or climb too high. Then of course there’s the other extreme. The child is alone and there is no caregiver in sight.
And sometimes I would strike up a conversation with the kids or with their caregivers.
Today was such a day. A little boy came to join my kids who were huddled around a mound of sand which they had piled up. The boy was chatty and we spoke for a while. I found out he was 6 and would be entering P1 next year. So I asked him where his parents were. He told me that his dad had dropped him off and had left to go somewhere.
I was aghast! A 6yr old boy alone in a huge park like this? So I asked again, “Do you have a brother or sister with you?” He answered that he has a sister but she was at home. Big gasp of shock from me. “You mean you are alone here in the park?” Yes, came the reply.
Oh wow!
This is the 2nd time I have encountered a scenario like this. The 1st time was at Safra Club, Yishun. That time, a little girl about 5 or 6 (I can’t remember now) was also left alone in the pool. Sure it was a kiddie pool and she could swim. But still………what if she got bored and wandered off into the deeper pools?! And she was left alone for a good 30minutes before her uncle came to pick her up!
Would you do something like that?
It would take a big, big emergency for me to leave a 6 year old child alone at a huge park or pool. Don’t these parents know the dangers of leaving such a young child alone??? Or are they so confident about the safety of Singapore?
Please don’t be so complacent. My friend just told me that her 9 yr old son was molested at a public toilet in Jurong Point. There are mad and bad people out there. While we do not want to be paranoid, we also mustn’t be too laid back.
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It depends on where. Maybe the downstairs playground, but not possibly a huge public place. But well, maybe those parents think their kids are as “street-smart” as HuangNa and see how that ended.