"I Love You, Pizza Man!"

by Lori Stanley Roeleveld

I answered the door for our pizza delivery, and my 4-year-old rushed up. "Hi, pizza man!"

He smiled and greeted her back. As he walked down our front steps, Hannah shouted, "Bye, pizza man! I love you!"

I laughed, but the encounter made me think. My children would identify someone they had never seen before as a stranger, but what about the strangers we sometimes talk to and interact with? Would they know that store clerks and librarians are strangers, too?

I began to play a game as we made our rounds of activities and errands. We greeted people as usual. Then back outside, I asked, "Is the lady at the coffee counter (or gas station or grocery store) a stranger or a friend?"

Initially, my trusting cherubs identified everyone we greeted as a friend. So we began fine-tuning our stranger-danger skills. Our rule became: Someone is a stranger until Mommy or Daddy says he or she is a friend. These rules apply even to friendly strangers.

I knew the game was working when Hannah told a gas station attendant, "You’re nice, but I wouldn’t go anywhere with you unless Mom says we’re friends."

Socially awkward moments? A few. Safer from strangers? Definitely.

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  This article appeared in the October/November 2012 issue of Thriving Family magazine. Copyright © 2012 by Lori Stanley Roeleveld. Used by permission. ThrivingFamily.com.