Motherhood in South Africa

Motherhood is scary. Motherhood in South Africa can be terrifying.

Now, ain't that the truth. I adore my little man with my whole heart, but in many ways having him has made me an easy target when it comes to crime.

Mom's are easy targets. It's that simple. I mean when it comes down to it, your focus and attention is on your child(ren).

Here's a simple example: The other day I was in a grocery store, I had my little munchkin sitting in the chair part of the trolley/shopping cart (with a cart cover - he's loving this experience, I might add). At the end of my manic shopping spree (because I know that he's only going to be calm, relaxed and giggly for so long before he loses his mind and wants to be picked up). I followed the snake-like queue waiting patiently to reach the front and be called to a check-out counter. The entire time I was moving slowly with the queue I was singing and playing with my baby in order to keep him distracted, two women (what appeared to be a mother and daughter) were standing virtually on top of me. Eventually I felt incredibly uncomfortable and swung my handbag (which was on my shoulder) forward, only to have a hand come with it! The daughter's hand was half in my bag. Frantically I was checking to see if I still had everything whilst they simply shouted that they didn't do anything wrong, stormed past me (and the rest of the queue) and exited the store.

Thankfully nothing was taken, but I was an easy target. My focus, as it should be, was on my child.

Fast-forward a week, and a video is doing the rounds on social media whereby a women is hi-jacked in the parking area of a playgroup. I go to this playgroup. I know that parking lot well. This is not something that happened in some 'other area' to some 'other person'. Yes, they wanted her car, but how much easier is it to hijack a women with a baby or children. You see, mothers won't fight back (nor should you in such dangerous situations) as their priority will always be the children. We are, therefore, easy pickings.

Of course this incident caused a flurry of concern. Do we return to the playgroup? Is it safe? What do you do in that situation?

The playgroup has made extra provisions around security, but the truth is that something like that can happen anywhere. And so, I made the conscious decision to not cancel or quit my outings - because where do you draw the line? If I cancel the playgroup (as an example), what about swimming? And do I simply stop going to the shops with my son?

We still need to live. We still need to play. We still need to show our children the world. We still need to provide them with experiences. But, it's a slippery slope. Because the truth is that we are easy targets.

We need to be more vigilant. We need to be more wary. We need to know that these things can happen. But that shouldn't stop us from living,