Sometimes the brainwashing works

I did, ultimately, drag myself into the outside world earlier on, leaving the flat just after midday. Ninety minutes or so later, I was on a fairly busy single-decker bus, but one with a few seats available, including the one next to me and the equivalent seat on the opposite side of the aisle. Two young girls, 11/12-ish, of South Asian extraction, joined the bus, and looked around for seats. The slightly smaller, and perhaps slightly younger girl had no hesitation in sitting down beside me, but her friend, with a note of panic in her voice that was almost palpable, refused to sit in the seat opposite, saying 'I can't sit next to a stranger!'. The irony was that the person she would've been sitting next to was a middle-aged Afro-Caribbean woman, hardly a 'high-risk' seatmate for a girl of her age, even if there hadn't been a busload of people and four (yes, I counted them) CCTV cameras recording everything that was going on. There's nothing wrong with instilling caution in children, after all, my ex and I did just that with K when she was younger, but to hammer the message to the point that the girl was terrified in what can't be described as anything other than a safe situation can't possibly be proportionate. Or healthy.

Love & best wishes to all
Sammy B