"Somebody get this kid some pants!"

Yesterday, as I was leaving work, I saw this little boy running down the street at the corner of Broughton and Lincoln. He was a cute little kid with a Prince Valiant haircut and a hooded sweater. And he had no pants on. He was completely naked and I could tell he relished his nudity. He was also carrying a bucket of chalk. He stopped at the curb and began to draw on the sidewalk. I thought perhaps his parents had just changed his diaper and that he had escaped, as most children like to do when they're finally free of their underpants. It made me laugh at first.

Then I realized they were standing on the other end of the street watching him. The partial nudity and the chalk no longer made me laugh as much as it made me worry about his parents and their concern. They seem rather indifferent to the fact that their kid was running down the street-- forget that at any moment he could run out into traffic or, even worse, be snatched by a passerby. Maybe I'm too overprotective, but I worry when a kid runs around in public naked. Sure, let babies run around naked inside a house or backyard. It's kind of cute when they do stuff like that. But on a crowded street where it only takes a second, when not looking, for someone to kidnap a child? It's too frightening for me.

I wanted to laugh at the little boy with no pants on, but I was sad that his parents weren't watching him very closely. I wondered if I should have said something and now I regret that I didn't, but what could I have said? "Somebody get this kid some pants!"