fpb | an oddly sweet story (Reply)

In the city of Ragusa, Sicily, there lives a young couple both of whom work in a local shopping centre. They have a little girl of three, and of course she had been found a place at the local kindergarten. A few days ago, for some reason - probably each one thought the other was going to do it - they both went to work without taking the child to kindergarten. She was left home alone. So she dressed herself, put her shoes on (wrong), and went out of the house, trying to find her way on her own. Of course she got lost, but a street cleaner noticed her and, once he had understood her problem, took her to the carabinieri. The parents risk being charged with child abandonment. Personally I hope they aren't; there is no evidence of any deliberate neglect or anything worse than being rushed off their feet, as young parents often are, and what good would it do the child to have them punished by the courts? But I must say that I am touched by the picture of that patient, thoughtful child, mature enough at three to get dressed and find her road on her own.