The other day I was driving in a city unknown to me. It was one of those things where if it wasn’t for your phone telling you where to go, you would be completely lost. As I came up to the next crossroad to turn there was a boy in the middle of the intersection riding his bike, waiting for a girl to cross the road to the sidewalk on hers. After she crossed I turned right slowly and started to drive. He raced up next to me on his bike with a big grin on his face and shouted HI!. I smiled warily through the window, of course thinking “Why the heck is this boy riding toward oncoming traffic on the road?!” but said “Hi” back. I wanted to yell at him to get out of the road, but you know that feeling when you aren’t in your territory, and don’t know anyone and don’t want to stir the pot? That was going on in me.
So I pulled away, and continued down the road, hoping he would bike around and join his friend on the sidewalk. But in my rearview mirror, I saw that he was continuing, speeding his way on the wrong side of the road at top speed. Then, I went down a small hill and pulled to a stop sign, losing sight of the boy. I sat there with a war inside of me, my head was screaming to back up, to tell him it wasn’t safe to ride like that, to step in for his Mom who couldn’t see what he was doing, and the other part of me was saying to mind my own business. It was that moment, as I was sitting there inside my head instead of pulling out onto the busier street ahead, that a big ole truck roared past me, going way too fast, turning left onto the road I was on, and speeding even more and it pulled up the small hill. My knuckles turned white as I gripped my steering wheel, and whipped my head around as I heard the squeal of the tires of the truck trying to get from 50 to 0 in a spilt second.
It was then that I realized I have been trained too well to be silent, too well to mind my own business. Against every instinct in my own body, in my momma heart, I forced myself not to speak up. Who knows why, maybe because it’s not cool, maybe fear of a Mom being upset with me for schooling their child, but in that one moment I would have given anything for a Mothers wrath if it meant her child was alive. And even more, I would hope that another Mom would yell at my children for the same thing, and I should always follow that gut feeling.
I came out of my fear induced deafness to a man’s loud booming yell as he didn’t hesitate at all the tell that boy what he was doing was idiotic. Tears of relief welled up as I continued to drive away, my heart still racing from what had just happened. My fear almost killed a boy, my silence almost ruined more than one person’s life. I will no longer be silent. As I spent the rest of my day picturing how stupid my own children can be, I pray that you too, will not be silent. Together we can be those annoying Moms yelling at kids to get out of the street, together we can prevent terrible accidents. From now on I am officially “that Mom” and I don’t care how uncool that makes me.
