The Importance of Watching Your Children

Everyone knows its important to watch your kids right?  Well, if you don't, here is a good reason.

Today I was playing with Jack in the front room and I heard my dog, Benelli, start barking like crazy.  I went and looked out our back window and saw our little neighbor kid and his friend in the backyard playing with Benelli.  The little boy is maybe one and a half, and the little friend is probably two or three.  My first concern was rescuing them from my dog.  Benelli is over 70 pounds, very playful and still a large puppy.  She jumps up on me and can almost knock me over, and I worry about what she could do to those little kids. 

I went out and put Benelli in her pen, and then I asked the little girl (no adults to be found anywhere) how she got into our yard.  She then showed my how she pushed back the fence and they climbed over the dogs pet porter and came into the yard.  I told them, very kindly, that they should probably go home.  I walked them through the garage, but the little girl started running towards my other neighbors house.  I kindly told her she needed to go home again, in the mean time thinking, "where the heck are your parents?" 

I got them home, and right as we were walking to the front door, the babysitter came casually walking out and said "i wondered where they were."  I told her I found them in my backyard with the dog, and expressed my concern that my dog could jump up on them and potentially hurt them.  She didn't seem to worried and then said "yeah, I guess.  I found my daughter in your yard yesterday too."  SERIOUSLY???

I had no idea how long those kids had been in my yard, but she didn't really seem concerned that they were gone.  I know this girl has her hands full, she has a daughter and is babysitting my neighbors three kids who are all under the age of four, but I think she needs to watch them more closely.   We live in a relatively safe neighborhood, but we also live on a busy street and there seem to be no shortage of creeps in this world who take children.  Her casual attitude and lack of concern really through me off. If I couldn't find my kids I would be frantically searching and very very concerned.

I called my husband and told him what happened and my concerns.  If those were my children and I found out that my kids had "run off" and the babysitter didnt notice I would be very concerned.  Also, this is not the first time I have seen them wander off or seen them playing in the front yard without adult supervision.  We decided we should tell the parents.  Its not that we mind having the kids playing with our dog or coming in our yard, we just dont want something happen to their kids.  As a parent, if I had hired a babysitter to watch my kids I would want to know if something like this was happening with my kiddos too.  

So here is the questions then, how do you express your concern to the neighbors parents without sounding rude or judgemental?