This is a perfectly safe situation.

This is Abby up (really really high) in a Mulberry tree. It had been raining a lot and the branches were slippery. What is the need for putting her in the seemingly dangerous situation? Blame her school.

There comes a time in every great education where the teacher decides it would be a great idea to raise a few silk worms. Their diet consists solely of Mulberry leaves. It becomes less of a great idea if you consider that there is only one Mulberry tree around here. Its prime location is in the fenced area of a "leash-free large dog park."And I mean large as in large animals, not a large location.

So I brought Abby and Michael to the large dog park (without a dog) bags in hand and ready to collect food for the silk worms. All the leaves on the ground were covered in dog poop. We sent Abby up the tree (she is quite a monkey) to collect leaves and drop them down to us. And we were in a hurry.

As soon as she began to climb the tree, an old lady made her way over with her large dog Duchess. Seemingly harmless at first, she observed for a moment. Then she started throwing her dog's tennis ball from right next to the tree. Next, she said "This is really dangerous. She needs to get down."

I looked at her and smiled a bit, but was completely ignoring her.

Old Lady: "Excuse me young lady. You need to get her down right away."

Me: ignoring her

OL: "I'm not gonna help you when she breaks her neck."

Me: "Thats ok her dad is a doctor."

OL: "This is ridiculous. You can't just come to a park and let kids climb trees.!"

Me: ignoring her

OL: "The branches are slippery. Get her down right away!"

At this point I was super annoyed. We had enough leaves but just to bug the lady I looked up at Abby and told her to climb higher and get some more leaves.

Then I turned to the lady and said "Kids have been climbing trees for hundreds of years and they're fine."

She gave me the evil eye and walked away to play with her dog. Sometimes I just have to be a little sassy!

*Abby was fine. She got down out of the tree without incident and the silk worms are well fed.