[2Jedismom]

And that said, when my children are with me, it is my job to teach them proper social interaction with strangers and people we know. So I often stand back and let them interact with people, redirecting as necessary. The hotdog incident showed me that Joshua had no qualms about going with someone he didn't know, just because he was friendly. The man was just being nice, but he shouldn't have said what he said. There are limitations to how intimate a stranger should be and I felt he crossed the line.

[HairOfTheDog]

I felt he crossed the line

Yeah - sounds to me like he did too...

But if my dog got out and was running, I would be asking everyone I saw outside, including kids that are riding bikes around and such if they had "seen a black and white spotted dog this morning".

Asking them to accompany me and look is a different thing... and would be crossing the line.

There are some nice, but bored, kids in my area, and two of the boys have shown a lot of interest in my horses. I see them, they come and kinda hang around outside my gate. When I am in the mood to, I go talk to them, and have even brought Bay or the pony over for them to pet and feed. I would hate to think that I can't talk to them.

I got into horses because a neighbor farm was willing to let me hang around.