I Am A Good Neighbor

You know who makes the best next door neighbors? Stay At Home Moms?

Yesterday as I was sitting at the computer this nice, older, grandmotherly woman with a dog came to my door. She was panicked. She had gone outside to let the dog out and locked herself out of the house..... with a 6 week old baby sitting in the swing and her phone on the counter.

Oh, no.

I try to reassure her, that babies that young sleep all the time and everything will be fine. Is there a spare key anywhere? NO. Is there an open window? NO. Does the garage door lift with a handle? NO.

She is afraid that the mother is going to kill her. Why? Because this is the first time that she has watched the baby alone. She doesn't know the mothers phone number. She doesn't know where she works. We try to find her number in the phone book. Who is listed in the phone book anymore! We try to find her online, no luck.

She uses my phone to call her husband who is at home, but  isn't interested in answering the phone with an unknown area code from out of state (that would be me).

She calls another number, no one answer. Those must be the only two numbers that she knows. We call, and call, and call.

I suggest that maybe we call the fire department or a lock smith. Surely they could help. She is terrified that she will be reported as an unfit mother.

She asks for a towel so that she can break the glass. I can imagine that is going to go over well. Its the middle of summer and HOT outside.

Finally, we get a hold of the husband and he drives over. They are the baby's grandparents and don't know their own daughters phone number. Heavens, I only know a handful of numbers myself. Our super smart phones make it impossible to learn a string of numbers and store them in our heads.  I offer her a glass of water and a place to sit, but she insists on waiting by the door or window so she can hear/see the baby.

I felt so bad for her. But glad that at least someone in this neighborhood was home! So, if you need to leave a key with someone - pick at stay at home mom:-)

I did feel bad, because we have lived here for a month and still haven't introduced ourselves to our neighbors. Perhaps if we had we could have proved more helpful. A towel, a phone, and a glass of water was all we were able to provide.

Phew, good thing we don't have doors that automatically lock behind us. Surely, this would have already happened to me!