Distressed child

I recently went into a supermarket so see a young girl, around five or six, bawling her eyes out in one of the isles. She’d lost her Mummy. My first instant was to go over the help her, but before I could do that I was subconsciously prompted ‘don’t’. Why not? The reason is very clear. If I, a male, go to help a young female child who is in distress, then her parent, upon finding me assisting her daughter in her hour of need, this maybe involving me in physically comforting her, could take me to court accusing me of molesting her daughter for some ulterior motive, and that could wreck the rest of my life, and would tarnish my reputation for a very long time. So subconsciously I was stopped in my tracks.

I took comfort in seeing two other women in the area looking as though they could be mothers and therefore knowing what to do. They would help the poor distressed child. But they didn’t, they just kept on shopping and ignored her other than seeming to just give her glance in passing. I thought that was appalling, so I started in her direction, ignoring the potential risks that I could be incurring. I couldn’t live with myself if I didn’t offer to help the young lady, and offer some degree of moral support. Bugger the legislation. It was more important to offer to help, whatever the consequences. I didn’t take more than a pace before a woman appeared round the end of the isle and took control, and the child’s reaction suggested that it was her mother. Good, but it left me worried and disturbed.

How is it that the government has organised such a legislation that stops an ordinary member of society helping someone else in a time of need and distress, just because they are a child? It is quite inhuman! We must not forget that child molestation will not stop because of legislation; we must not kid ourselves that it will. It won’t!

The only positive thing that can come out of this type of situation is that the child will naturedly think the general public are a very nasty lot, and are not prepared to come forward and give them a helping hand when they are obviously in need. Very disturbing! It can surely only lead to the child growing up the same, to imitate what they have experienced, taking what they have observed as an example of what is expected of them when they grow up. It is sometimes very difficult not to despair of civilization!