A Tip, Parents Do Not Loose Your Children at the Zoo

About two years ago we took our 5 year old nephew and 3 year old niece to the zoo. It was hot sunny day so we really needed to have some mouth watering ice cream. We split, I took my niece and sat under the tree full of peacocks. Yes, the peacocks were hiding in the tree. We decided to be brave, and lucky no flying patties or rain from the sky. My husband took our nephew to get the ice cream. I think the ice cream man was making that ice cream from scratch since there were only few people in line and took them forever to deliver that mouth watering ice cream to us. The funny thing was that there were few young Amish girls same age or a bit older as my nephew and they couldn't take their eyes off him. I watched from far away as he would at times put his head up and pretend not to see them. It was kind of cute.

The ice cream was really being made from scratch. We gave up waiting, just sat under the tree and observed by passers and by standers. As the time lapsed, by standers would come and go. Then one cool looking guy, not good looking guy, but cool looking guy made a quick stop to have a cigarette. He played cool, blowing smoke to the sky. Good thing it was to the sky and wind was blowing away from us, because I am allergic to the second hand smoke and I can smell it miles away. This cool looking guy was not approachable, he just looked like one of those if you are lost somewhere, you rather be lost and not ask questions.

We continued to wait. Many people passed by us, especially lot of parents with children - walking, being pushed in strollers or pulled in wagons. As we watched all these people passing by, suddenly a child fell out the wagon. The parents continued to walk not seeing what happened. The victim of the situation was 1.5 or 2 years old girl. The second older child in the wagon, the brother, was reaching out with his hand saying something, but because it was loud no body could hear him. The little girl was stunned for a moment, so she just sat there for few seconds trying to recover. There were lot of people, so no body really noticed anything, just us and the cool guy.

I really underestimated the cool guy, he was actually first to notice and first to yelled out loud - 'excuse me, excuse me' - he at first said in deep cool voice. No response from parents. 'Excuse me, you lost your child' - he finally yelled really loud, and started to move towards the little girl. It all happened in matter of seconds, and since I knew that the cool guy was taking care of the business I just got myself ready just in case. The parents finally turned back, the girl started to cry. The parents picked up this little girl and just walked away - looking kind of embarrassed. Well may be this is why the cool guy is cool guy - he got no thank you, or even a nod of acknowledgment. And I was ready to give him a medal.

The moral to the story - don't underestimate others by their behaviour or look or cool look, they may be first to give you a helping hand after all, and probably the last to be thanked. And the main moral to the story is - strap your children to the wagon, especially when at the zoo, because it isn't just the zoo of animals, but zoo full of people and you can easily loose your child as these parents did.

Help Can Come In Many Different Forms and Shapes

Helping others is one of the greatest gifts one can give someone. However, each individual will offer help in many different ways, and I would like to present my way of helping others. Believe or not, I helped many times, and many times my help wasn't viewed as help, but I always believed in the long term help meaning that will last forever, and I am lucky to have my second half thinking the same.

Here is my magic list of items of which I strongly support:

1) Help your self first. Let just give you an example from the air travels. Not sure if anyone pays attention to the emergency routine demonstrated by the stewardess, but I do. When that oxygen mask is ejected, put on yourself first. If you will not, then in case of emergency if someone needs more assistance than you, without a mask you may help one person, but with the mask you can help many.

2) Think how you are going to help. It is nice to give little things there and there in case of need, but have you heard an expression when you give someone a finger, next thing they want your whole hand. Yes, some people will eventually abuse the free help, and especially the financial help. So here is the statement that explains it all. I think this comes from the bible, and not sure if these are the exact words, but if you give a man a fish he will eat for a day, however, if you teach a man to fish he will eat for life. Don't be afraid to give people advice and teach them, and don't be afraid to set rules when your help is abused. I rather teach people how to survive, than just give and see that on the end it is all wasted.

3) Help is not just about giving, it is also giving a mental support. Believe or not, such support may be indirect help, but it does gives one in need strength to go on.

4) When you helped someone, don't expect to get help back from the same person. Life works in mysterious ways, and the help will come your way in time of need, and don't be surprised that the helping hand came from total stranger.

5) Sleep on your helping decisions. I am strategic thinker, and many times people think that I am reluctant to help. But no, they don't see sometimes that there may be an alternative way to help, and not just one way. I think even the person in need, needs to understand that they cannot just turn the whole world upside down because they are the only and only that need help. Sometimes, I do sleep on my helping decisions, because I really think working in harmony together we can accomplish a lot more.

I would love to hear what others have to say about that, and if you have other helping suggestions that may benefit all of us here, please let us know.

[JUST BLOBBING]