With Brenda it was definitely a case of "do as I say, not as I do". If Brenda wanders away from Danielle in the store, what has that taught Danielle? I suspect Tom Sawyer-like adventures to be the norm with the van Dam children. Children emulate their parents in different ways.
Who knows what is or was going through her head. Yesterday a mom was in walmart (or maybe she was a babysitter, who knows)..she had a toddler sitting in the cart, 3 kids walking with her and a little boy pushing a stroller intended for 2 babies. (he was moving too fast for me to see if there were babies or was a baby in it...) He was behind the "mom" of course, pushing it as fast as he could, running in and out of the little display stands that are in the middle of the aisle. Pulled right out in front of me without looking. He would have gotten creamed by my cart had I not had quick reflexes, it was that close. I told him that was way too fast and looked around for his mom. He just "looked" at me. When I found her she was about 10 -12 ft ahead, totally engrossed in shopping. Who knows the factors behind this scenario...but the bottom line is he was being unsupervised and he was reckless. (Clueless...she was clueless) SO...just because they are not left unattended, doesn't mean the parents are worth a crap at guidance, supervision or discipline. :-p