>Stranger Danger

>I knew the stranger question was coming.

As I got my kids out of the car for their annual physicals, it occurred to me that I needed to remind Punky of the correct answer to the stranger question. Each year since she was three, the doctor has asked her what she would do if she met a stranger. Each time, she has given a creative and yet totally incorrect answer.

“If a stranger tells you to get in his car, what do you do?” our doctor asked Punky last year. She paused for a moment.

“I don’t know, fight him?” she asked hopefully.

Um. No.

This time around, I was going to prepare her better and hopefully escape my pediatrician’s office without dying of shame. But somewhere between the stroller opening and the juice dispensing and the scoping for germs in the waiting room, I just sort of…

Forgot.

Right up until the moment that our doctor spoke those fateful words.

“Now, Punky, what do you do if you see a stranger and he tries to talk to you?” I froze as he asked the stranger danger question. BUSTED!

Punky looked at him for a moment, then looked over at me. I knew exactly how the gears were turning in her mind. She needed more information. Was the stranger paying her a compliment? Was Punky with her mommy when the stranger tried to talk to her? Was the stranger a little old lady? Did the stranger have children of his own with him?

I resisted the urge to prompt her and merely gave her a pleading look. She remained silent.

“You ask your mommy if it’s okay to talk to him,” the doctor said slowly. He scooted forward in his chair.

“Now. Let’s say the stranger drives up in his car and he seems very sad, and he says he’s lost his puppy and he wants you to help him find it. What do you do?”

Punky grinned. “I would help him find that puppy, of course!” she said confidently.

I cringed over in the corner.

“No, dear,” the doctor said. “You would run and find your mommy or an adult you know and tell her what happened.”

Punky frowned in disbelief. I knew what was coming next. It’s all she has talked about for weeks.

“But I’m going to be a pet detective when I grow up,” she said. “I’m going to find lost puppies and kittens for people.”

The doctor laughed a fake little laugh, then wrote something in his folder.

I don’t even want to know what it said.

This post originally appeared on Parents.com.