Suburban Folly

Had a pretty no-frills play date today. We arrived, played ate snacks (the toasted peanut butter english muffins were excellent), cleaned up and left. Well, some of us left. Rory had a dead battery due to a bad alternator. But that’s not the funny part. While waiting for the tow truck (which was a 90 minute ordeal involving several calls to AAA and the tow truck driver) Anza and 2 of her toddler friends were playing in the “dead” car. The keys were in the ignition. It was a little breezy so someone shut the car door to keep the kiddos warm. Somehow Anza found the lock button. We grown-ups heard the click of the door locks and simultaneously looked over to the car. The same thought raced through all our minds… “Did the kids just lock themselves in the car with the keys?” (or something like that) . It was right out of a bad movie or sitcom. Fortunately, with a few minutes of cajoling, we were able to direct Anza to push the unlock button. The whole kids locked in the car ordeal was relatively short, and was quite humorous in the circumstances. It’s not too hard to imagine a similar scenario with a less humorous outcome (extreme weather, panicking or injured kids locked in the car, etc.)