my whole world stopped

[knittedbreast]

today i lost my daughter in a shop. I looked round and she had gone, i called her name, nothing.

i looked down all the eisles and i just couldnt see her. it was awful. i felt like everything was moving in slow motion like i couldnt react properly. then i couldnt find any staff (it was primark), so im running trying to find someone, anyone. I told them id lost her, suddenly security are there.

i must have looked a state, once the other mothers reaslised what had happened they grabbed their childrens arms. I could hear people staring and saying" thats ladies lost her baby, shes gone". it all went quiet.

I just thought to myself, god if i can have her back il never ever complain about her annoying me or whining again. I just kept looking but there was no sign of her, i cant explain how that felt. I just kept thinking the worst, someone had snatched her and run off with her and id never see her again, or worse theyd find her dead in a few days.

and then this couple are walking towards me and the bloke says "excuse me, have you lost your daughter? shes outside the shop. shed run towards the road from the shop and a lady grabbed her, shes with security".
I started walking towards security and there she was happily smiling, calling for me.

I just grabbed her, held her and cried. There is nothing worse than that feeling. i just kept imaging having to tell my boyfriend id lost our daughter. you could tell the staff and security were relieved, people looked me in the eye again. it was like they wouldnt look at me when they thoguht shed gone. It was horrible, they pulled their little ones closer like the fact mine had dissapeared might be catching.

im so glad i have her back.

Please watch your little ones, stupid to say but i looked away, just glanced.

im going to let her have her milk now.

It is awful when you think they're in danger. Just horrible.

I was at an event recently and a little boy got lost...everyone spread out to look for him and he was found in minutes. :) It was one of those times when you think "wow, there really are a lot of good people in the world."

My baby is only ten months so this hasn't happened me yet. You just have to keep reminding yourself that people are decent mostly and the stories that make the news do so because they're rare, otherwise you'd never leave the house.

My brother wandered off years ago on holidays in Cannes - he was 7. I still remember my Dad's face, he was ashen. Ten minutes up and down the path with my mother bordering on hysteria, and there he was - sitting with an elderly American couple being fed icecream. They had found him wandering on the path and sensibly figured his family would go up and down and see them on the cafe terrace. My parents were so grateful - we (the other two brothers and myself) were less so - we were held onto like lapdogs for the rest of the holiday.

my DD got lost on holiday at haven 18 months ago. she was 5yr old and had made pals with another little girl 2 tables away. it was about 11pm and the little girls dad took them into the arcade bit. he took his eye off them for a few seconds and both were gone. he assumed they were coming back to us. we had security looking all round the park, the pub was checked, burger king, toilets etc. after about half hour, my boyfriend went into the loos (womens) and there was the little girl waiting for my DD. my DD shouted 'im having a poo'

we had just been missing each other all the time as all the loos had been checked

I recall sittimng with a friend at Mother and toddler and chatting over coffee, glad for a break while the kids played nicely.

Then a woman arrived with my friend's DS on a trike. Apparently, he had got half way up the high street

A friend's DS was exploring in the woods when he came across another adventurer who was about 4. The little boy showed him the hole in the fence he'd got through and invited DS to tea at his house. DS told him to go back into his garden and then very sensibly went and located the house from the front, which took a while.
The mother who opened the door wasn't very polite to the somewhat incoherent teenager on her doorstep, but he refused to be ignored until he had explained about the hole, and that her secure garden wasn't.
He didn't stay to tea.

DD2 once let herself out of the house and skipped off to the park when she was about 3 and I was putting DD3 down for her nap. I went berserk looking for her and calling her indoors and out, knocked on neighbours' doors, banged on boots of cars, and eventually called the police, who found her. She was probably gone for over half an hour.

DD3 herself got separated from the family on a beach once and that was horrible too.

You don't realise what a vast and impenetrable place the world is until you can't find your child. They could be literally anywhere, and with anyone. Terrifying.

DS (3) did this at christmas whilst out shopping in HMV ( 3 days before christmas) with DH and he literally vanished, one second he was there, the next gone. DH said my face drained of colour, I ran to the door to try and head DS off if he was heading that way and DH looked around the huge store, whilst hundreds of people where choosing presents for loved ones.

It took around ten minutes to find him, he was looking at the Wii games! I think I must have aged about ten years that day

DD & DS (4 at the time) went on day trip to Arran with my sis & brother.
It was a year after said event that my sis 'fessed up.
On return sailing my sis & brother nipped down to bar for bro to get a drink. DS & DD were there all the time, they chatted etc then suddenly realised OMFG - where is DS??????? Not in the bar it would seem. Cue - frantic run around the deck & deck below. No DS. By which point the entire bar (aside from a young student boy reclining in armchair with ipod on) was hunting for DS. The ferry staff were charging about hunting for him also - the ferry was in chaos as I understand it.
Then the staff told my sis they were launching the FRV (speedboat for man overboard scenarios), at which point the student boy sat up and said "are you looking for a young boy..." and gesticulated to the back of his armchair whre DS was happily playing hide n seek.
My brother wrote a lovely letter of thanks to calmac for that.
No wonder they kept it a secret for a year.

I had someone ask DS if he was 'lost' the other week. Had been put in a 'time out' for deliberatly doing what he'd been asked to stop doing (at the beach). I was sat in the car about 10 meters away whilst he stood there sobbing. I thanked the lady for asking and said he was fine and in time out - she gave me a look.

I found a child once walking down the busy road that my street leads onto. She was with her dog and the dog ran into the road and she went to chase him. I admit I grabbed her. She didn't speak well and when I asked where she lived she started to follow her dog back into my road. The dog then ran off. I stopped outside my flat and called the police - they knew who she was when they turned up just as the family noticed she was missing and were running down the street after her. I do wonder what would have happened if she'd chased her dog into the road as there were cars coming both directions.

I've got my lost child story too - Asda. I froze in total panic and time went very slowly - went to the customer service desk (on rubber legs, tunnel vision too) and said I'd lost my daughter, tears streaming down my face (not howling, just tears of total panic). The woman behind the counter picked up the phone and made a call - I remember thinking that was an inappropriate thing to do when I had just told her the worst possible news. She asked me what dd looked like and I couldn't speak - eventually she said "Blonde?" and that knocked me out of my mute state because dd is anything but blonde - I described dd and the woman repeated the info into the phone - turns out she was talking to security and all the doors had been locked. I've never thanked Asda for that and really ought to (thank you Asda!!). Found dd and we limped towards one another, both sobbing. dd had got into a fireman sam fire-engine. I have no idea how long she was lost but as everyone says, it seemed like an eternity.

From then on I would often call out my dc's names in supermarkets, stores etc when I couldn't see them. Over the years, other kids would shout out a reply, so 5 or 6 replies to my call - they probably thought it was funny . I took my kids to the millenium celebrations and the thought of a vast crowd, in the dark, petrified me - I literally felt nauseous and only went because a big crowd of us were going and my kids couldn't miss out. I secured long dog chains between us, fastened to our jeans belts so the kids were like satellites arranged around me . ds was mortified and never let me forget it (still goes on about it now - wait till he's a dad, he'll understand).

I still sometimes slow down in the car if I see a kid on their own and ask them where mummy or daddy are. I know it looks dodgy but I'd rather look dodgy than a kid be in danger and nobody do anything about it.

Bring back reins I say!

Both of mine had reins, they saved DS on numerous occasions.

jeez. ive cried reading many of these stories.

i lost my ds1 once about 8 years ago. he was just 3. we were at a local attraction on a nursery trip along with all other pre schools in the area. i was pushing dd in a buggy, got caught up in a huge crowd of people and he was swept away and carried along with them....sil ran after him and came back about 15 minutes later saying she had lost him.

i so clearly remember that slow motion thing...everyone was looking, staring. i couldn't remember what he was wearing or anything about anything. all staff were alerted via radios and i was told that no child would be allowed to leave the place. all i could think of was the huge lake at one remote end of the attraction...

i went through the motions of almost accepting that he was gone and thinking of how i was going to tell my dh and my parents that he was gone....

i was crying and shaking and my whole body was buring with fear....i couldn't speak....god. i can feel it now.

a call came over the radio eventually to say they'd found him.....in the bloody park!!! i cried more, and was so overwhelmed when i saw him. he was oblivious and had been missing for about 40 minutes....

just horrific.

it breaks my heart to think of james bulger and little madeline mcann.

on a brighter note, SO glad you had a happy ending op.

James Bulger was two when he died, and I watched the story unfold with my two year old asleep in my arms. She's 20 now.
Reins.

:( Goblin . I was ten when that happened, just horrible. I kind of forgot about it until it was in the news again last year or whenever, when DS was two. I had a week where I cried about it a bit every night. Just awful. :(

I know abduction of this kind is very very rare (apparently it's about 115 children a year in the US though with urban legends and whatnot it seems like much more) but those statistics aren't much of a comfort when yours is one of the 115 I suppose. :(

So glad to hear all these "found them safe" stories.

Poor you, it's sooooo horrible, the worst thing ever.

I've got 3 dds and we've 'lost' each of them over the years. The worst time was when dd1 was 3 and dd2 14 months and we were on holiday in France. I was pushing dd2 in the buggy trying to get her to sleep and dd1 was splashing in the pool. Dh had gone back to the apartment to hang the washing up. I then realised I couldn't see dd1 any more. I looked round the whole pool area and couldn't see her. I raised the alarm, told members of staff and tried to explain in French (not too well!) what she looked like and the colour of her swimsuit etc. While they were looking, I remember looking into the pool - I think I'd thought she had drowned What seemed like a lifetime (must have only been about 10 mins), dh came back to the pool with dd1! She'd 'gone to find Daddy' and walked all the way to the apartment by herself. Looking back now I'm amazed she found the way herself at age 3 - all the apartment blocks were v similar. I had such a huge mix of emotions when I saw her - obviously hugely relieved and also cross with her for going off without telling me!

I have nearly cried reading this and it reminds me of when I was in Next last year and a little girl of about 3 took a shine to my baby and kept chatting to her in her pram. I looked up and made eye contact with her mum. I said goodbye to her as I moved into a different part of the store and a moment later she was back next to my pram chatting to my baby, her mother nowhere to be seen. As I was asking her "where's your mummy?", I heard the most frantic voice EVER screaming her name so I shouted her mum over. The look of fear in the mother's eyes stays with me. My toddler is now on reins when we go out but she can't stay on them forever.

This happened to my DH when he was out shopping with DS2 whos now nearly 9, he was 3 or 4 at the time. Turned his back in a large shopping centre - and DS was off bullet, didnt take long thankfully for him to spot him disappearing up an escalator. And there should end the happy ending.......

only DH can still remember his embarrassment - amid the utter seconds of panic when he realised he was gone...mixed with utter relief at spotting him....he chased after him up the escalatar and managed to grab hold of him as he was about to run off at the top......he grabbed hold tight as DS was a squirmy wee bugger boy.......only for DH to yell out in his loudest clearest voice "HELP HELP, hes got me"!!!!!!!!!!!

Yes you can imagine the looks DH got as he spluttered "honestly hes mine"!

It was DS who shouted "help" not DH lol, we really need an edit button!

Thank goodness she was found safe and well. That is why I take my young child into the public toilet with me instead of leaving her outside, you never know what might happen. This is in special reference to the using the disabled toilet thread recently.

LOL newgolddream

I'm also one of those who dressed my children, not in BRIGHT clothes, but FLUORESCENT clothes when we went to a huge play park near us. Literally hundreds and hundreds of children..

I even briefly contemplated, as I sat on the bench all day keeping an eye on them like I was looking for Wally, making a fluorescent flag on a stick that would flap about above their heads so I'd know exactly where they were.......

I found a child once. I was having a coffee in a large shopping centre, DS was only little and asleep in his pram. I remember noticing this other wee child out in the mall and I just knew he was alone. I watched for a few minutes and then went up and asked if he was lost. He said he was. I found security, and sort of handed him over. As i walked away, this woman came bounding up. I'll never forget the look on her face. She didn't know it was me obviously. This is making me cry thinking back actually.

sprigydaffs - he didnt get any better as he got older, we got used to trying to watch him like a hawk or he would be off. Lost him once in Asda, mild panic until we found him at the fish counter holding a fish talking to it about had he seen Nemo? (was obsessed with Disneys Finding Nemo )

Lost him in a relatively samll Tesco once and was relieved when my name got called over the tannoy......I arrived at customer services, to find a nice friendly Tesco woman and Ds smiling holding a toy, who then announced "I know I could have found you Mum but I wanted to know if you would buy me this"!!!

that moment when you find your child and dont know whether to yell at them or hug them. i can still feel it now. all i 'saw' was posters of maddy and how it was gonna be my girls face on the posters.
glad all of us got our kids back

DD (3) was at the end of an aisle that I was at the beginning of in TK Maxx. So I was expecting to see her when I got round the corner but she wasn't there. Then she wasn't round the next corner or the next and she didn't answer when I shouted.

I found her after 2 or 3 minutes increasingly frantic searching, sitting by the security scanners near the front door. She said that she looked for me but I wasn't there and (like the Owl Babies) she decided to sit down and wait for me, and she had closed her eyes and thought about me and I had come.