On 25 January, we were driving up Cheltondale Road towards Louis Botha Avenue just after 10am. On the Maryvale College side was a twin pram with two kids in it, but no adult near the pram.
We did a U-turn after we crossed Louis Botha Avenue to see what was going on, when the helper crossed the road from the Caltex Rouxville Garage [opposite] with a third child on a bicycle. Later, I found out the boy’s name was Eli. He was wearing a blue top with a red-orange helmet.
I approached the helper and asked her how can she just leave the pram with the two kids alone. Anybody could have passed like we did, stopped the car, and taken the kids. She informed me that no one would do something like that, and that she was across the road at the garage looking. She also informed me that she had worked for the kids’ family for over four years.
I am bringing this to everybody’s attention because I hope the parents of these kids will read it and know what their helper is doing. I am a parent and if my helper had left my child on the side of the road alone I would be a very unhappy mother.
We always hear the stories about kids being kidnapped from helpers while they are walking with them in the pram. I wonder how many of these stories happened because they left the kids alone for a few minutes.
