Part of being a good neighbor is looking out for those around you, particularly when it comes to children. That doesn’t mean it’s your responsibility to care for everyone’s kids, but many people firmly believe in the saying “If you see something, say something.” That can also mean saying something when you don’t see something that should be there when it comes to children.
If very young kids appear totally unsupervised and something seems wrong, it might be time to reach out for help. One man did that and posted in Reddit’s Am I The A—hole forum, wondering if he went too far.
He claims a toddler who “was 2 years old and couldn’t even talk yet” was left to wander outside alone with another child who was only 7. “She didnt know how she was related to him when I asked ‘is that your brother?'”
This bothered the original poster enough to call the nonemergency police line for help. The department sent an officer to assist.
“The officer finally showed up and right when he did our neighbor came out and was like ‘why did you call the police this isnt a police matter’ (this child is NOT my neighbors child, I had until tonight a good rapport with my neighbor so I knew it wasnt theirs),” OP wrote. “I was like “m’am this boy cant even talk yet hes so young” and she started screaming at me saying I should have taken him into my house and kept him safe. I said “‘Im not taking some 2 year old kid into my home without the parents knowing.'”
The neighbor yelled at OP and said “we take care of the kids in our neighborhood, if it was your kids I would do the same! you let them run around without you out here what if you were miles away and you found out that someone called the police on your kids.”
The neighbor called OP a bad person for calling the police and told the officer she would handle the situation. She took the boy home. OP thought he did the right thing, but then he wondered if he overreacted like the other woman said. He wanted unbiased opinions from Reddit, and they came in clutches.
“NTA. The children in question could not give names or an address? Phone number? Or relationship? No. No 7 year old should be out in the neighborhood alone with a toddler,” one person commented. “I am ashamed of the officer. HE should have gone with them, and talked to the parents. That little one is going to get hurt. The parents are irresponsible. Thank you for doing your best to look out for those kids. Your neighbor over reacted, and was rude.”
That pretty much sums it up.
