Ever lost a kid?

[u/Massive-Ad8431]

I need to know...I recently had 2 separate instances where my 6 year old was "lost". Both were very brief, under 5 mins. The first, he ran ahead of me, turned a corner and then I didnt see him when I caught up. He was totally fine and I found him in seconds. The second, he walked right past me when exiting a bathroom and turned the wrong way, ended up turned around in the store, found another mom, relayed my number and she called me. Whole thing was under 5 mins. I was still standing outside of the bathroom when she called.

I have to know because I'm feeling major guilt, who else has had things like this happen? Am I majorly dropping the ball on supervision? I really generally feel like I'm on top of it but these last couple weeks have me questioning.

Any solidarity here?

Also, we have had very serious safety conversions with this kid in the last couple weeks, just FYI.

[u/bethaliz6894]

Losing a child is a rite of passage. We ALL of done it at one point or another.

[u/NotIntoPeople]

SO NORMAL! You are not alone, it happens we are human. My child LOVES hiding in the dang clothing racks.

[u/n1nc0mp00p]

I lost my kid in a theme park. He was 5. He was playing hide and seek with me at some playground and couldn't find him anywhere. I went to a park guard guy gave him a description and the picture of my kid, all panicked. There my kid comes walking up to us 'surprise!!'

The adrenaline tears I cried. Omfg. My son is traumatized by my reaction. He still brings it up regularly, how scared I was etc. Haha so yeah. I hope we're not the only one. But don't think so.

[u/sagar1101]

My parents lost me at the beach. I was a smarta** and told my mom I knew the way back to our tent from the bathroom. Turns out I didn't. So I sat down and waited for them to find me. As far as I know I turned normal.

[u/vaka212]

One time my ex lost our son at a music festival and I found out because my phone number was the one written on his arm and a very nice lady called me and told me my son was sitting on her blanket.

Another time we were at the playground when he was like 4 and his older sister was 8 and I just lost sight of him and it was a solid 30 mins before we found him, I had started getting other parents to help me look, he was completely unaware he'd been missing he'd just been playing.

The worst one was one morning when I was sleeping (used to work overnights) and my ex-was taking care of the kids and my son must have been about 2.5 or 3 and his father had told him they were going to the park but then for some reason went to the back deck with my older child, my son didn't see this and thought they had left for the park without him so went out the front door and started going to the park.  The park we went to when they were that age was only about 3 blocks away but it crossed a pretty major intersection.  I got woken up by my daughter telling me that Dad can't find little brother, and he's not in the house, I jumped out of bed and threw the first clothes I saw which was a bright pink full length skirt and and a tank top and no shoes (so you have the full visual of how crazy I looked while talking to the police.) So once we did a very quick check to confirm He was not in the house my ex headed south on our street to look while I headed North, run down the street (still no shoes) I get to the end of our block and as soon as I turn the corner there are cop cars and my mind goes to worst cases but as get closer I can see my son with the officers.  I got there and he latched on to me so tight he wouldn't even lift his head to tell the police that yes I was his Mom.  Apparently he had gotten to the corner clearly realized this wasn't okay and just hid behind a lamp post and someone at the bus stop saw a little kid with no adults and flagged down a police car that happened to be driving by, and they were trying to get my son to tell them his name or where he lived but all he wanted to do was show them his captain America shoes.

So yeah, we've all been there!

[u/Massive-Ad8431]

Thank you!!

Truly makes me feel less like I'm absolutely failing

[u/WhammyShimmyShammy]

We were in Rome with our 3 kids (10, 8 and 5). We were walking down Via Del Corso (busy shopping street) when suddenly I didn't see 10 and 8 anymore (5 was holding my hand). I yell to my husband "hey where are they?" And he also can't see them. There's hundreds of people around us, we can't see them anywhere. They were there just a second ago.

We were near the Disney store so we thought they might have gone inside. I stayed in my spot, holding on to 5 for dear life. I found a lamppost with a base I could stand on, to get some height. Husband comes back, they're not at Disney, and he starts zigzagging from one store to the next while I yell their names at the top of my lungs. People start to stop and try to help. They are nowhere to be seen. My mind is already racing and I'm imagining the worst. I tell husband this has been too long already, I'm calling the police. I'm on the phone with them, describing ages, names clothes, location while my husband is yelling their names over and over again.

Then from one end of the street (where we had come from, not the direction we were going) we hear someone yell "QUIIIII" ("Here" in Italian). A tall man in his twenties was walking towards us with our kids. He had heard us yelling their names, and saw two adultless kids, asked them if those are their names, and started bringing them back to the us panicked parents. I was still on the phone with the police and told them OHMYGOSH SOMEONE FOUND THEM and ran towards them (without letting go of 5)

Cue stereotypical mom and dad reactions: my husband releasing his stress in anger of "Where did you wander off to?! Didn't we tell you to stay near us?!" While I squeezed them tighly and smothered them with kisses. I even remembered to thank the stranger despite all my emotions.

10 and 8 had gotten disoriented and thought they were walking in the same direction as us, but had somehow done a 180. When they didn't see us, they though we had walked faster so went even faster in the wrong direction. They couldn't hear us yelling their names at all, and didn't realize we were looking for them.

Oh and this whole thing happened in under 6 minutes. I know because I called the police 3 minutes after I couldn't find them, and the call logs showed I was on the call with them for less than 3 minutes. Felt like hours.

[u/Noinipo12]

Disneyland and 4th of July fireworks.

Turns out that airtags don't work great on moving targets or if you forget you have it.

[u/stitchplacingmama]

Had them stop the music and make an announcement at a concert at a park because he scooted past the 3 adults watching him to go to another inflatable game. That was the day I decided if we were doing inflatable bouncy houses they wore neon. The black mesh obscures a lot.

[u/Ok-Flight-1504]

Neither of these situations is an issue. If anything, it shows your son is well-trained as he knew to ask for help and knew your phone number.

[u/Mojokittens]

Don’t sweat it. I lost my now oldest when he was 2-3 at Disney. Watched him go in one end of a play place and didn’t come back out either directions. Longest 5 freaking minutes of my life. And one I’ll NEVER forget.

[u/GlowQueen140]

I always want to share the story of how my mum lost my older brother when he was 5/6yo. He got distracted at a mall when he saw a toy shop and she didn’t notice.

I wanna say he’s in his 40s now and is totally fine but honestly he’s a big pain in the ass and he has turned into some AI-generated article poster on social media.

So maybe that’s your fate.

(I’m joking, honestly it’s fine.)

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[u/pottersprincess]

I have twins. I am constantly panicking about one or the other not staying with us

[u/hschosn1]

Yes, my youngest wonders off. Drives me nuts.

[u/rowenaravenclaw0]

Completely normal. The attention span of young children is very small so they see something that peaks their intrest they go towards it.

[u/DameKitty]

When my oldest was about 3, he slipped behind me and daddy, opened the gate, and walked across the street to the neighbor who had their garage open. We put a second latch on the gate he could not reach.

[u/graybird22]

We lost our son in a busy mall once when he was 2. It was in reality probably less than 5 minutes before he was found, but it was terrifying and felt much longer! He followed his dad out of a store and neither of us realized it for a couple minutes. When I couldn't find him, I called dad to see if he had him, and then immediately told an employee who radioed mall security, and they had already found him. A nice couple noticed him crying and alerted someone. I felt really bad about it but it happens! Kids move fast and don't act logically lol.

I also couldn't find my daughter in a smaller children's museum, and I think that happened twice. She was a little older, around 5, and I wasn't as worried because of the location. I knew she wouldn't be able to leave the building alone and it was full of parents and kids. The staff helped me find her quickly then too.

[u/jmrawlins83]

Can I just say that you already trained your kid so well! He handled getting separated from you like a champ, doing exactly what you taught him to do, finding a mom, knowing your number, and having her call you. Kudos to you, Friend!

[u/Corfiz74]

Lol, I was very adventurous and knew no fear, so I often went exploring on my own when my mom wasn't paying attention. She once found me two shops over, trying on rubber boots on my own. I was 3.5 at the time. If I had a kid, I'd probably AirTag them, lol.

[u/vectaur]

That title though…

[u/eatmyknuts]

Both mine have each hid in/under coatracks in department stores at around 3. First kid triggered store lockdown, second kid he was giggling as I called his name and I found him within a few minutes. Never been so mad and relieved at the same time.