Excuse me, can you repeat yourself.....
Friday morning, we had quite the scare. I received a call around 8 am from the high school up the street saying they had my 6 year old daughter. The ladies voice was trembling. Excuse me, why is my daughter at the high school? I mean, Max has been walking her to our car pool each morning and I assumed he got her to their house.
****Sidebar****
A few months back, Maisie and her friend, also included in this story, planned for an evening meet up. they were 5 years old and we were just letting them hang out in each other's houses as we came out of COVID. They wanted to play more at inside the houses and planned this meet up.
Maisie got up at midnight, put her shoes on and left the house. She walked two doors down and rang their bell. She woke up their whole house. They called me, but I have my phone on DND and did not get the call. Next, we hear our doorbell ring and go to the door. Carlos is blind without his glasses and looks out the window and sees a little girl. He opened the door and its was Maisie, my heart was pounding. Our neighbor made sure she got home, but we had to have a talk with the girls.
Back to the Story
She said, your husband had a seizure and the kids are at the high school. I was like what, as I am looking at my husband. I stopped her and calmed her down since I was all confused.
As I am listening I am putting it all together. Our neighbor was the one driving and had to tell them that her is not Maisie’s dad but the other girls and asked if they contacted his wife yet.
They said they were calling her. I told them I’d be right there to get the girls and she responded, there was a baby in the car too.
OMG, their 2 year old was in the car too!!!
I put pants and shoes on, since I was till in my pajamas and my husband and I rushed out the door. I went to the kids and he went to our neighbor. The kids were so happy to see a familiar face.
There was an ambulance and police there but everyone kept the kids safe and calm and away from the situation. They also even called the girls school to tell them what was going on.
My poor neighbor who drives the kids to school had a seizure driving and crossed the intersection onto school driveway and almost hit the building. Thankfully someone was able to stop the car by getting in front of it and pushing it to stop. It was inches from the building. That woman was an angel and literally put herself in harms way.
I also have to say how proud I am of those kids. They stayed calm. Maisie took the lead on giving information on her name and my phone number. She was also very local about giving other details to the school staff so they can locate our neighbor. Maisie's friend kept her little brother calm and really took charge to make sure he had a snack and didn't cry too much. Two amazing little six year old girls handling a very scary situation.
I am also glad us adults did not go into panic mode. My goodness, I thought I would especially after seeing the car almost in the building. But seeing the kids not hurt and them so relieved to see me, I know we just had to take them to school. I packed the girls in my minivan and drove them to school as Carlos drove our neighbors car home and his wife drove him and the 2 year old home.
After getting the girls signed in and a situated I spoke to their school and asked them to keep an eye on them since it was a traumatic experience and I have no idea how they would react. They were fine. what they say about kids being resilient, I hope is true. Maisie told me later that she though he was joking and he had his eyes closed. I asked if she as scared and she said no.
I am pretty sure that my neighbors thought we would never allow our kids to hang out ever again of end our car pool. We were opposite, even though in the last month this happened and Maisie cut her chin at their house and needed stitches. But life happens and as long as we have a plan and everyone was safe, we are ok. Who knows, this could easily been any one of us. Our neighbor is not driving kids until he sees his doctor and gets the go ahead.
As parents we need to understand that we cannot control every situation and if we do not work as a collective group, we will never learn and nor will our children. We live in this digital age that we never even have to meet each other, but having neighborhood families who look out for you and your kids is so important.
Here's a few tips to keep calm in a very stressful situation.
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