My brother, his ten-year-old son and I visited Beta at work, and then took a stroll around a nearby park. My brother had his camera, a fat digital SLR, and I had a new digital camera he brought over for me. We walked around and took pictures of stuff.
I saw various people I knew and pointed them out to my brother. I saw a violinist from my orchestra. I would have said hi, but she was playing beach volleyball and I didn’t want to bother her, so I just watched for a while.
Then my nephew saw a playground and disappeared into the climbing equipment.
My brother and I wandered around among the playing children, two middle-aged men with cameras.
“This doesn’t look good,” my brother said.
We casually strolled away and took a seat at a table outside a cafe. At some point we ate dinner, and gave Beta a ride home.
Granted your brother is American, but are the Austrians as over-the-top about “protecting the children” as we are here?
They are more concerned, or afraid, or cautious, than they were 30 years ago, but no society is as afraid as the American, I think.
However: shit does happen. A few years ago, when my daughter was a little kid and splashing naked in a fountain with other little kids, a stranger hid in the bushes and took pictures of them, and ran away when he noticed that the babysitter had noticed him. This was in Seattle.
What do you mean by over-the-top?
didn’t i … take the bike home?
That would explain why the girl we drove back to our house was so upset.