Situation Sunday

Situation 1) There is this new "adventure", that teenagers, young adults are doing now. It is called Phrogging and will be on ABC Tuesday night 9/8 pm, on I-caught. The adventure is to sneak into a home and live there, under the noses of the home owner. They hide in closets, under beds- attic, where ever they can. If you were searching the net, and found out that a month ago your neighbor's child was phrogging out at your house for a week, what would you do?

My first response would be to ask where the neighbors thought their kid was for a week?! I would bring printouts of whatever webpage I'd found, for the parents to read. And I'd just sit there and wait for an answer. If that produced no satisfaction, or if I was dealing with adults (so-called) and got no satisfaction, I'd pretty much go to the police and let them know this was happening. Frankly, I wouldn't want monetary compensation--though I would have to take my house apart looking for damages, potential issues (food left for ants, etc.) and webcams (cuz I'm that paranoid!)--but I'd certainly want some kind of major show of remorse.

Situation 2) One of your parents who has always been the perfect parent is being accused of being a pedophile by a child in your church. You have never had any clue or indication that your parent could do that. The only proof is the child's word. Do you stand behind your parent and fight the accusation and totally believe them? Or do you keep your children from spending any time alone with their Grandparent?

Well, I'd be sure to have a very serious sit-down with my kids and ask them a lot of questions about any time spent alone with that grandparent. I might even schedule an appointment with a child psychologist. I'd probably stand behind my parent publicly until I heard what the police investigation turned up.

This whole subject is pretty ironic, at least in terms of timing. At least I can be thankful for small favors in my real life!

Situation 3) A co-worker/close friend always finds one excuse or another from doing anything. She always wants to spend time with her husband and kids, and has no time to do anything. Even when you include her whole family in on a outing, she acts all excited at first, then with in 2 minutes she starts making up excuses as to why she can't do it. How do you handle that? And when do you give up trying?

I think three times is sufficient. However, if she were a long-time friend, I'd probably ask her point-blank what the deal was, if there was a problem. And I'd try to do this face-to-face to she couldn't squirrel out of it.