I took Caitlin for the new animation movie, Bolt; no I didn’t lose her in the mall, despite the title of this post.
I should have known, being on a Sunday that the chance was slim in getting tickets. It was after all the first weekend of its screening. In the end, to manage her disappointment, we “settled” for Madagascar 2. I think she enjoyed it; despite asking “Is it finished yet?” some 5 times. I think she was more determined to sit through the whole movie than to enjoy the story- we kept saying how you shouldn’t leave the cinema before the end of the movie, like what she did during her first movie experience with Wall-E.
So anyway.
I parked at The Gardens, we walked briskly to get to the top floor of Midvalley. At The Gardens, initially I could hear someone speaking very loudly at the other end of the mall. I had thought it was just a kid making repeated noises. As we walked toward the middle of the mall, the voice was also coming closer. I realised the repeated “noise” was “Michael…. MICHAEL….” and it was coming from a lady.
She was pushing a stroller. Beside her was a boy walking along; no, he was actually running to stay beside his mum.
She was looking very very worried.
“MICHAEL! MICHAEL!……”
I couldn’t stay around to see what was going on next; after all we were (also) in a hurry. I went down the escalators at the middle of the mall, looking up to see them pass the top of it onward to the other end of the mall.
It dawned on me what was going on. The lady and the boy passed another party, probably Sunday shoppers too; gesturing to other probable shoppers out of our sight. A small person, nee high.
Caitlin was also looking, probably only because of the noise. I asked if she could guess what was going on (I have started to ask her to assess situations, lately).
I don’t think she could; she said she didn’t know. I told her what I thought was likely going on…
What would you do if you had lost your toddler in similar way?
What “survival skills” would you teach your child to tackle such an incident?
I had a similar experience myself before I started going to school, so many years ago. It was a beach outing and I had wandered off “base” so far that I lost where we “camped” on the beach. You can imagine the horror when my family couldn’t find me, at the beach.
The long and short of it is- somehow I had memorised (I can’t recall how or who made me) my dad’s car registration plate. That’s all I could offer the cops, who later found it in the parking lot, and placed me on it waiting for someone to claim me.
In this day and age, similarly I guess a child could be made to memorise mobile phone numbers…
What else?
I’ve incorporated personal information into bedtime stories that I tell A, and now she knows her full name and address by heart, which when added to the fact that she knows and uses our first names is a fair whack of useful info if she ever got lost.
We’ve also talked about going to a police person or the person at the front counter of a shop- this is the biggest challenge because she is shy.
A phone number is too much to remember. I have seen people get around this by popping a sticker on their child or a wrist band with a contact phone number and name at large events. Great idea.
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I guess teach them the use of information counters, the police man or any other person in uniform. Or to approach any sales person.
Thus that is why 7/8 year olds are carrying handphones these days.
Sigh….and thus we should not frown and parents who use those backpacks to keep their kids beside them!
[ Ann's last blog post..Of rest(au)rants! ]
Thanks Hisychick, those do sound like great ideas, in case you cannot (yet) teach the kids to talk to authorities or carry the essential information.
Ann, I did also wonder that parents these days spoil their kids by equipping them with mobile phones, till I think about the occasions like this.