stranger danger or another reason i have more gray hair every day

so this afternoon i had a talk with luca. i am trying to train him to not leave the house without telling me and to stay on the front porch if i let him stay out by himself for a few minutes. this is going pretty well. the problem is he comes in and leaves the front door wide open. guess who likes that arrangement? yes, miss gia thinks it great fun to leave the house and porch to play on the sidewalk. usually i am not far behind, but this afternoon it was a good two or three minutes before i noticed. a lot can happen in that period of time when you are 19 months old. thankfully, she was fine - just pulling the wagon in front of the stairs. but i sat down with luca and tried to get across the seriousness of this issue.

usually i just explain the danger of gia playing near or in the street. luca seems to understand and is very somber on the issue of getting hurt by a car. today, i decided to bring up the second reason for safety - strangers. yes, i know he is only three, but it is a very scary reality that i don't like to dwell on but need to be thinking about. all in all it was pretty good and somewhat funny to try to get the idea across. i could explain the entire conversation, but i wanted to share a small snippet of our talk. i was role-playing with him how to say no and running back to the house.

me: "okay,, so luca, what if a person you don't know comes up to you and says, "hi little guy, do you want some candy? i have some in my car."

luca: (up until this point very somber, smiles wide) "YES!"

seeing his innocent expression of glee, it took a lot not to smile, especially since this actually makes me very anxious. of course, he would want candy. he is three. it makes me remember how little control i have over his safety. yes, i am a vigilant parent and do everything in my power to keep him safe, but that is the problem. i only have so much power.

a mama friend of mine once shared how hard it was to give the safety of her children over to God. i have never felt that as clearly as i did today.