Never Talk to Strangers

We've always struggled with convincing Emma not to talk to strangers. Well, it's not that we can't convince her not to, we can't get her to remember not to. So last night we went out to dinner* and while we were waiting for our table Emma made a new friend. It was a sweet little girl who was there with her mom and dad. So they played and talked and Emma told their whole family our whole family's names. Eventually they were taken to their table and we were taken to ours. As we were leaving the restaurant and on our way to our car we met up with them again. Emma was so excited to see them that she ran up and gave them all hugs - the mom and dad included(which surprised them...). So in the car on the way home we had another discussion about strangers. Near the end of the discussion we were running through different scenarios and talking about when it's OK to talk to strangers and who strangers are. We had a neighbor, Mercy who lived two houses down but recently moved. Now it's a house of 3 young bachelors. The other day she ran down to their house (without permission...), rang the doorbell, and was just chatting away with the new neighbor she had never met. I think she'd forgotten that Mercy had moved and was hoping to play with Mercy. Anyway, I asked her about those neighbors and if she thought they were strangers. So this is the paraphrased version of her answer:
"Yes, but Mom - if I was sleeping and they came to our door, you could answer the door and talk to them. And if they said, 'When that girl wakes up - you know, the beautiful one - tell her she can come and play at our house with you because we're strangers, so you can come too.'"

I just thought it was so funny that she referred to herself as "the beautiful one." It won't be so funny when she's in high school, but for now I can be happy that I've raised a confident child with high self esteem...who talks to strangers...hmmm.


*tangent: TGI Friday's has the best new menu!! They have smaller portions, smaller prices, and healthier choices! They even have small desserts so you can get a little sweet treat but not make yourself overly full. I loved it!