Bad Parents (Additional Moscow Notes)

A traffic officer stopped us, again. This time in downtown Moscow. Same as in Klintsy, except that was a random stop. This one was because Bethany was seen standing up between us in the back seat. I admit that sounds bad, but here is the back-story.

We believe is car seats. We actually have six. Two new ones in each of our cars, precisely installed and maintained, and an extra pair of used ones, for others who may want to transport the kids.

And, we lugged along two other car seats from Phoenix to Moscow on our second trip. These were donated by our agency. We brought them for use by our kids and we were to leave them for all to use.

But, when we arrived, the seats seemed unexpected by drivers and facilitator, and we were given the impression that they would not be used. Russia had just implemented a child restraint law effective the first of 2007. There was apparently not much compliance as yet.

So, on the third trip, we were not surprised to find that there were no car seats in any of the vehicles that we used.

On this particular ride, we were with Mila. Normally both kids rode in our laps, but this time we kept Bethany on the bench seat between us. She was getting cranky, so Mila was talking to her in Russian. This caused Bethany to edge closer to her, so that eventually she was standing in the gap between the front seats, while I held on to her from behind. It was very slow, bumper to bumper, downtown street traffic.

And so, back to the traffic stop. The officer saw Bethany and pulled Mila over. After less than a minute, she was back in the car. She said that the officer told her that we were bad parents, but Mila had negotiated her way out of the fine; I think by agreeing with him. Bethany rode on our lap from that point on.

It's not just traffic officers, we had to beware of the babooshkas too.

Gayle says I was paranoid, but everywhere we went I saw the older Russian women looking at us when we were out with the kids. We had been told before that they are very concerned about the children being adequately clothed.

Most of the kids we saw appeared to be so bundled up in snowsuits, that they must have been sweating in the milder weather we were having then.

The pants we had for our kids were normal length, so when bunched up by a carrier or stroller they exposed too much leg for the socks to cover. I had to be on constant watch for exposed skin. Tugging down on the pants and up on the socks.

Plus, Bethany and Andrew did not have gloves; though not all toddlers we saw did. Also had to be sure they had on their knit caps or hoods at all times. Did not want to look like bad parents.