Date Night and Terrorism in NYC

My husband and I spent the weekend away recently, and left our three year old son in the care of his very capable, much loved babysitter.

Although our sitter has our numbers programmed into her phone, has keys to our home, and knows the friends we were with that weekend, we still had a few extra details to iron out- the darkest of which was leaving my own parents’ contact information in North Carolina, should anything happen to me and my husband while we were away.   (And if you’re like me, you believe that the mere act of passing along the information will be exactly what keeps a fiery crash from happening.)

But today, I’m wondering if this is something we should start doing every time we walk out the door.

Apparently, ISIS has shared a video wherein they name Times Square as a target, showing photos of The Gap and TGIFriday’s.  Thankfully, we never eat at Friday’s, and our Gap is two blocks away.  But joking aside, has it come time to consider what will happen to our child if, out on a date night, we are obliterated by a suicide bomber?  Or worse.  What will happen to US if our child and his sitter are enjoying the Museum of Natural History, and something horrible happens there?

I exaggerate this fear.  I’m not afraid, and I won’t change the way we live- or WHERE we live- to please some xenophobes or Really Bad People.  I won’t be looking sideways at people with backpacks or long beards, and I won’t steer clear of Times Square any more than I already do.  And believe me, I do- it’s an armpit down there.

On the other hand, there’s a new line to the SITTER INFORMATION sheet we have in our kitchen.  It says, “Grandparents.”

I almost went with “In Case We are Blown Up by Terrorists,” but that seemed a little much. 

And very unlikely.