Morning of December 23, 2014. Tuesday.

Even though this is vaguely related to the recurring (and assuming fictional) Enchanted Forest setting, it is not as defined as usual and seems to be in a different location.

My family and I stop near a forest during, I think, an extensive shopping trip or other outing. We are still fairly close to the main part of town. The forest is still quite dense and supposedly isolated (internally), though. It seems to be around late morning. Although I am not sure of directional orientation, the forest remains mostly to my right from wherever we were walking from.

After a short time, I notice an unusual-looking light gray "mouse" with very short fur and scurrying about at the edge of the outer perimeter and in and out of clusters of dead leaves. I watch it for awhile. It may actually be a vole, which I consider for a short time. I pick it up briefly but let it go again. For some reason, a vole seems more "wild" or "exotic" (as well as "rare") than an "ordinary" wild mouse.

Later on, a toddler appears from deeper within the forest. Even though she is only about three, she somehow seems to have been living there alone most of her life. This seems a bit odd, so we decide to take her with us as we do more shopping.

Later, however, a younger male wearing glasses, who reminds me of someone I only saw once several years ago in public while he was carrying his daughter with a very annoyed look on his face while entering a men's room at a drive-in theater, makes an appearance near the parking lot of a mall. He is very angry that we took his child from the woods. Apparently, she was supposed to be there on her own for a time as he and his wife were doing shopping (I do not think it was punishment). His wife is with him but he does most of the complaining. They take the child with them after a few conversations about leaving a toddler alone in an isolated area (which seem to "reset" and repeat - there are a couple times when I am thinking "jungle", even saying it once or twice, but then change it to "forest" since I have doubt that there is a jungle nearby).

For some reason, he does not think it strange to leave an infant or toddler on their own in a forest for a long time, as it seems she had been there for weeks according to the conversation. It seems my wife and I are very inconsiderate to have "rescued" his daughter in light of what we thought we were doing. (It vaguely reminds me of a real-life scenario years ago where my wife informed another mother that her young daughter was handling mothballs at a secondhand bookstore and was possibly about to eat a couple - the mother acted more annoyed at my wife for informing her in a timely manner than about the situation itself, and there was a similar event where a toddler was running around in her backyard on her own with large sharp scissors where the mother became angry with my wife instead of having any concern for the child).

This still seems wrong to me, though my family and I resume our activities after I punch him in the face several times, knocking him over each time. He seems mostly uninjured and unwavering in his beliefs.

This dream followed thoughts that have always greatly puzzled me nearly my entire life on how it is possible for toddlers to disappear or have fatal accidents in settings where there is apparently no adult around anywhere. This is even more of a puzzle since I have had extensive experience with a large family for quite some time (thus it certainly is not a question of a lack of perspective or role which many would probably use as an excuse regarding my opinion) and it has never been that difficult to care for family members and be aware of their safety. I still do not know how it is possible other than a bizarre lack of attention or awareness on the part of parents or guardians (when a child somehow wanders off), which does not even seem possible to me other than the parents simply forgetting they have children for a time. I suppose this sounds strange coming from someone who had a near-fatal accident themselves when not quite two years of age. I guess I was a quick climber and I do not blame either parent in this case.

The girl in my dream vaguely reminds me of a real-life situation where we saw two female toddlers walking around in our front yard at about two in the morning and they were hanging around near our front steps as if lost. The parents were inside their house, possibly drunk or sleeping. A large dog was with them as if the parents thought that a dog somehow had human perspective and "responsibility" and would viably babysit their kids.