I was minding my own business, really, talking to a mom friend and pushing my toddler on the swings.

I didn’t ask the little boy to come up to me.  I didn’t even smile his way.

But he did come up to me.  He wasn’t shy at all, and he even smiled as he asked me to push him on a swing.

“Is your mom around?” I asked him, hesitating.  It’s not that I didn’t want to be friendly, but I wasn’t sure about this.  We live in the country, and I have no idea what the unwritten rules are for pushing a strange kid on a swing.

Read the rest in my latest column at CatholicMom.com, “Becoming “That” Mom.”