Although my two sons are adults now in thier mid- twenties, when my first-born son was two I awoke one morning at 5:30 as always without the use of an alarm clock but upon awakening, I can't explain it but something just felt wrong. I jumped up and literally ran to bedroom which was right next to mine and he was not in his crib. I ran down the stairs - no bathrobe, no slippers, didn't even think to grab one, just in a nightie - and found the front door wide open. I ran out of my front door and into the street all the while calling (yelling) out his name. No thought of waking up sleeping neighbor's - didn't even enter my mind - just sheer panic! As I'm running down the street calling out his name, I could see one of my neighbor's walking towards me with my baby in her arms. As I got to him he held out his little arms to me crying "mama, mama". I took him in my arms, of course I was sobbing and so was my neighbor. She told me that she had been sound asleep when she awoke to the sound of a child crying out for their mama, she jumped up and looked out into her backyard and there sitting on the ground beside her children's swingset was my son. She ran out to him, picked him up into her arms while reasurring him that it was ok and she would take him to his mama. We stood in the middle of that street, all three of us holding eachother and crying until another neighbor came out (nightclothes on too!) with a blanket in tow, wrapped it all around us and said, "well if your all gonna stand out here crying, at least have a blanket and get warm" Of course she was crying too but we all couldn't help but start laughing at the way that she said it! Even my son's little sobs stopped and he looked from one of us to the other and starting laughing to, he was (still is even at 27!) so precious. I couldn't have been more thankful to that neighbor. My son had woken up and for some reason - never happened before - he pushed a chair up to the door and unlocked the deadbolt. He had already figured out how to unlock the lock on the doorknob itself as I happened to be right there the day that he learnt to do it and that was why I had installed a deadbolt on the door - just not high enough for him not to reach it with a chair!
No parent is perfect BUT when we honestly make mistakes and someone comes to the rescue, we should be grateful. IMO if a parent(s) act hostile or offended - too bad. For all those who have experienced that type of reaction from parent's when looking out for the wellbeing of a child, I've encountered it myself and I've said this on at least 3 occasions over the past 6-7 years to parents who have left their child/children unattended and have had such a reaction toward me, "better that your embarrassed or mad then a grieving parent" and their mouths hang open as I walk away.
