It takes 10 seconds
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Yesterday we (my wife and my 3 kids, ages 7-4-2 and me) were at a local summer festival. There’s a very large field with about a dozen bounce houses. Then there’s a small playground between that grassy field and the parking lot which was full of a bunch of food trucks…. It’s a great summer festival before a bunch of fireworks at 10 PM.
It’s 9pm and the sun is about to set. All three of my kids are on the playground, climbing the rope net, or on the tire swing. My wife and I are watching, it’s a very warm summer night, lots of families and people around, and earlier that evening we ate some food truck delicacies on the far end of the food truck section (away from the playground). This comes into play later.
Our 7-year-old is climbing a little rock formation on the playground, and I grab our 4 and 2 year-old and walk them over to the stroller to get some water. Both are next to me and my wife.
Our 4-year-old takes a drink of water and I turn around for the 2 year old. I don’t see her, and over the next minute or two my wife and I realize she’s not on the playground at all. She wasn’t out of sight for more than 10-15 seconds.
They say life moves slow in these moments, and it’s true, what took place over the next five or six minutes felt like 30 to 60 minutes.
As we scan the playground in the fading dusk light three or four more times, it becomes apparent that our two-year-old is no longer on the playground, and we have NO idea where she is. We split up and we tell our other two kids to stay on the playground and look for their sister…I checked the grassy field and verified that she’s not on the field at all, so we both head towards the food truck area where theres probably 1,000 people.
I stop and ask a married couple to keep an eye out for the description of our daughter. Then, as I’m about to head back to where we ate our food on the very far side of the event to see if our kid wandered there, I run into my wife who said she talked to a local police officer who thinks they found here (via their radio).
Indeed the police found the 2 year old over by where we ate dinner. Lost and confused. And gave her a shoulders ride back to us. She was sobbing when she saw us, must have been scary for her even more than for us. Which says a lot, I hope no one is ever in that situation!
We give our kids a bunch of freedom when we are out, a very long leash per se… and I think our two-year-old wandered off because it had been the end of a very long day (without a nap!) and it’s not normal for her to wander away without us.
In a slight twist of fate, later that night a young two-year-old boy was lost and I recognized him and knew his mom from being in a bounce house earlier so I was able to help another family as the cops helped me.
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Scary AF.
My biggest scare was a similar story when he was 7. But at fucking Disney World. The worst was finally seeing his terrified face.
After that, literally that very same trip, I had him memorize my number and said if he’s lost to approach a mom or grandma and ask for help.
"You never know what worse luck your bad luck has saved you from."
-Cormac McCarthy -
Scary AF.
My biggest scare was a similar story when he was 7. But at fucking Disney World. The worst was finally seeing his terrified face.
After that, literally that very same trip, I had him memorize my number and said if he’s lost to approach a mom or grandma and ask for help.
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Nightmare. Very glad it turned out ok.
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Children are largely to teach you the meaning of terror. Before I became a father I wasn't really scared of anything or anyone. Once she was born, I was scared of all sorts of things.
“I am fond of pigs. Dogs look up to us. Cats look down on us. Pigs treat us as equals.” ~Winston S. Churchill
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Scary AF.
My biggest scare was a similar story when he was 7. But at fucking Disney World. The worst was finally seeing his terrified face.
After that, literally that very same trip, I had him memorize my number and said if he’s lost to approach a mom or grandma and ask for help.
@jon-nyc said in It takes 10 seconds:
Scary AF.
My biggest scare was a similar story when he was 7. But at fucking Disney World. The worst was finally seeing his terrified face.
After that, literally that very same trip, I had him memorize my number and said if he’s lost to approach a mom or grandma and ask for help.
Ah Disney World! I bet they have a bunch of lost kid calls all the time. Our 7 and 4 year old know to "ask a mom (or cop)" if they are lost, and the older knows our phone number, but the 2 year old... tough age. Smart enough to know where to go, but not smart enough to LET ME KNOW SHE'S GOING
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What a relief. My palms were sweating reading the story. I bet the cops felt good about being able to help.
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Children are largely to teach you the meaning of terror. Before I became a father I wasn't really scared of anything or anyone. Once she was born, I was scared of all sorts of things.
@Mik said in It takes 10 seconds:
Children are largely to teach you the meaning of terror. Before I became a father I wasn't really scared of anything or anyone. Once she was born, I was scared of all sorts of things.
Ain't that the truth. I wasn't too concerned about her wandering into the woods or someone grabbing her, although the thought does creep into your mind, but there was a weird feeling after triple checking the small playground and not seeing her of "I literally have no idea where in the world she is".
@Axtremus no air tags. Might be dumb, but I'm trying to give them as "free" of a childhood as I can. I guess we all try to replicate our own childhoods to an extent... it's odd to think about what I did in the 80s vs kids now...aka take the bike with my brother and go miles away exploring creeks for hours on end. I know you all have even more extreme versions too, lol.
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@Mik said in It takes 10 seconds:
That's a long way for a 2 year old.
Yes. Quite.
I’m so glad she was found 89th! Time really does slow down in that moment, doesn’t it?! You’ll never forget this evening. My gosh. So scary.My moment happened when my son was 3, in a small department store, when he climbed out of his stroller as I was paying for stuff. I turned my back for a moment. The store was packed, smack dab downtown with 3 exits out to: 1) the train platform, 2) the drug-users & noontime office madness street fest, or 3) the busy street with multiple bus stops & taxis. My heart literally stopped. The only thing I thought to do was yell: “[His Name]! Stay where you are! Don’t You Move!” .. or something like that. Then the cashiers & security got involved. Somewhere, near the train exit, someone found him hiding under a rack of scarves. He was oblivious to my state of panic.
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@Mik said in It takes 10 seconds:
That's a long way for a 2 year old.
Yes. Quite.
I’m so glad she was found 89th! Time really does slow down in that moment, doesn’t it?! You’ll never forget this evening. My gosh. So scary.My moment happened when my son was 3, in a small department store, when he climbed out of his stroller as I was paying for stuff. I turned my back for a moment. The store was packed, smack dab downtown with 3 exits out to: 1) the train platform, 2) the drug-users & noontime office madness street fest, or 3) the busy street with multiple bus stops & taxis. My heart literally stopped. The only thing I thought to do was yell: “[His Name]! Stay where you are! Don’t You Move!” .. or something like that. Then the cashiers & security got involved. Somewhere, near the train exit, someone found him hiding under a rack of scarves. He was oblivious to my state of panic.
@blondie Oh man that scenario is so much worse! I at least had the "comfort" knowing that my daughter was somewhere in the crowd in a parking lot that is connected to the police and fire department.
My mental gymnastics even now is trying not to think of what my daughter was going through as she walked in the crowd, lost, not knowing where her mom/dad were. I'd like to think she was walking merrily along but really I'm guessing her whole world was starting to crumble around her in confusion. Probably even worse if the kid is a tad older and "knows" what they are missing, like @jon-nyc 's at Disney.
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seconding and thirding (etc) all of the above comments.
