I lost my 3 year old today

[AngelaD]

In school would you believe, I was collecting the older one and she ran ahead, next thing I knew she was completely out of sight and had crossed a road (with the crossing lady), I was absolutely frantic.
I didn't handle it at all well, cried and everything god knows what the teachers must have thought.

I lost my dd on a campsite too.
She was 3 at the time and has Down's syndrome so she can't talk and had even less common sense than your average 3 year old as well as being quite deaf. She was playing football whilst I was talking to my PILs - I thought they were watching her, they thought she was still inside the awning...
She was gone for about 10 minutes, the longest 10 minutes of my life and the campsite seemed like a huge sea of awnings - I was running around shouting her name and stopping everybody I saw. My FIL eventually found her on the other side of the campsite, still kicking the football. She'd crossed two roads to get there.
Bloody hell it was awful. We sold the caravan afterwards, partly because of this.

I have got loads of memories as a kid of being lost. i half wonder now if mum was actually trying to get rid of me. One time was in a shop & I was with the manager who wanted to put a tanoy message asking for mum to own up & claim me & I had to give him a description & I was mortified 'cos she was (again) wearing this absolutely hideous striped felt zip up jacket & I didn't want that braodcast! I was so pleased when she chucked it.
When mum & aunty were about 6 & 8 G'ma had another baby. My mum & aunty weren't too happy. g'ma got them to go to the park with baby & they left her there on purpose . g'ma was not impressed when they returned hom ages later without baby sister & MADE them go back & get her!

We lost dd1 at a music festival last year. She was gone for about 1/2 an hour. All of the stewards and police in the area where alerted. She was eventually brought back by some police. She was found crying in a playground as she had split her drink. It was awful. dh and I were in a right state. One minute she was dancing in front of us. Then a crowd came and pushed past and she was gone. We thought she had been snatched.

I had just taken my children to the school book fair and signed a large cheque when I looked up to find DS3 wasn't there. I was not too worried at first; I asked my other two children to look for him in the toilets and other likely places. When he hadn't been found half an hour later I was more concerned; by that stage everyone else from the head teacher downwards had joined the hunt. Then he turned up. Someone had found him ringing desperately on our doorbell, recognised the school uniform and brought him back to school. He was really pleased with himself. "I walked home all by myself. I didn't get squashed because there were no cars coming". DS2 (5 at the time) told me in a very matter-of-fact way "I thought he'd been squashed, Mum".

My dad managed to lose me, aged 5, when he took us to the park - he and my sister stopped to cross the road and he didn't notice I'd kept walking. I was away with the fairies and it took a few minutes before I realised they weren't with me (you can see a family trait emerging here...). Even then, I just kept on walking, until a very nice lady noticed I was alone and took me to the nearest police station .

My mum is no better - she left my sister in the newsagents a few months later.

I lost dd at a National Trust place once, she decided to play hide and seek without telling us, vanished into the bushes and despite us calling and calling it was a good 10 mins before she reappeared, by which time we had mobilised the staff to help us search.
"Didn't you hear us shouting?" we asked. "Yes, but I was hiding really well, mummy!" she replied.
I'm always temporarily mislaying them in ToysRUs but find them in one aisle or another so that doesn't really count.
We lost DS2 much more comprehensively at the weekend. We were in London, hopping on and off buses and in and out of museums with 5 children (me and my sister). Our bus arrived, DS1 and I ran for it, the others followed but no DS2. I went back in some alarm to discover him on the bus in front of ours (about to leave for quite the wrong place) He looked a bit lost but fine really. He was only away from me for about a minute. He's nearly 3 btw.
We had spent all day losing him in the dinosaur museum but this was an extra special effort. My boss was shocked when I told him! He was fine tho. And maybe will learn not to let go of Mummy's hand....

ds1 has autism and was always prone to wandering off. Even now at 6.5 he has to be watched. Usually he runs too far ahead now.

I lost him when he was about 4 in the Winter Gardens - a very large greenhouse near where we live. It's huge - takes several minutes to walk from one end to the other and lots of places to hide. I must have lost him for about 10 mins. Finally someone said they'd seen a boy I described. I found him with another family playing in some sand. He was unable to tell them his name (couldn't talk much then). It was awful. I wasn't concerned about child molesters more about him getting out into the road.

When I was about 15 I was walking down a busy road and saw a baby (and I mean, a baby of maybe 12 or 13 months old) also toddling along the pavement. There was no one else around so I took her hand, steered her away from the road and went to the nearest houses. These were set back from the road, overlooking a patch of grass, they had no gardens, or fencing. Sure enough the front door to one house is wide open, a blanket is laid out on the doorstep and lots of toys scattered about. I knock the door, but have to shout out above the sound of the Hoovering coming from inside to make myself heard. The woman comes out and I tell her the baby was wandering along the main road. She looks completely unfazed, thanks me and sets the baby back on the step with the front door wide open. I'm a bit taken back by her response, or lack of it but set off again. Before I've taken more than a few steps the Hoover starts up again .....It's was one of those times when you realise adults can be stupid, and just plain wrong...

My mum knows a woman who was like that with her kids, her daughter used to escape from the house all the time when they just usd to leave the door open, my mum found this little girl sat half a mile up the road in the gutter playing with leaves many many times! She wondered out one day to the local park and her parents didnt even notice she had gone for hours! unfortunatley it was too late at that point as the park had quite a big lake and this little girl was about 20 months at the time and so obviously wasn't 'aware' of water it never failed to amaze me how someone could be so careless with their childs life!

Lost DD2 (3yo)in an huge hypermarche in France on hols. We were all together choosing a DVD, then DH went to the loo - turned round to look at a book DD1 was pointing to, turned back and she was gone! Charged up and down in completely demented manner (completely in a panic).

Yep she had followed DH to the toilets. That was one o the worst 15 mins of my life.

I was left outside the libary by my mum when I was in the Pram... She got home 15 min walk before she realised shes forgoten me. back in the 70s it ws common to leave babies outside shops , I think if I did it now I'd be accused of neglect.
My SiL as a child "lost" her parents on holiday, she went up to the wrong pair of hairly legs in shorts , I guess at 2 or 3 your dads legs look much like many other dads legs. This has happened recently to us, when dh was grabbed round the knees by a child demanding an ice cream , the kid was most surprised when the request was refused and he was peeled off with an "I'm not your dad" whilst we looked around for another bloke in shorts to direct him at.
UniSarah

Left 4 month old Ds "home alone"
Me and DH were getting older 3 , 6 y, 4y, and 2y into the car, with shouts of "got everything " to each other we set off. 5 mins down the road realised one car seat was a bit empty !! Emergency U turn home to find DS gurguling away happily on sofa carpet ( luckily he was still to small to get himself into "real" trouble)

Also completly lost dd 4y in PC world, looked down every aisle twice, then out side, 10 mins searching no sign. The found her on the floor fast asleep exactly at the end of one aisle so just looking down each aisle I missed her .

Message withdrawn

PMSL Orinoco! Did she notice??!

Lost my dd (3yrs) on crowded Spanish beach for 20 minutes - such a cliche but absolutely true, look away for a moment and they are gone. Dragged 4.5 yr old around trying to be calm and find child. Older girl kept wanting to stop and build a sand castle. Eventually found her sitting in a small tide pool, happily playing with some rocks. I feel a bit sick thinking about it. Although I couldn't remember any Spanish at all on that holiday for some reason how to say "I lost my baby" came ringing into my head while I was searching.

My parents left my brother at home once when they were all travelling out in the car to a picnic spot. Arrived and then thought, "What is missing?" He was still playing happily in his play pen.

I still remember the feeling ..... I was about 8 and in a crowded lift in a busy shop with my mum, dad and two brothers. The doors opened at our floor and my family got out. THEN THE DOORS SHUT WITH ME INSIDE!

The feeling inside my chest is indescribable.

Luckily some people inside the lift reassured me that they would get me right back to the floor I needed and my parents were right there when the doors opened. I've always been careful to block the door with my body now until everyone who belongs with me is out.

The memory makes me shudder. I like the stairs .

I panicked the other day.

2.5 year old mindee came running in shouting 'ds gone ds gone' I ran to front door and it was open.... pegged it outside and he was wandering up the road (he's 22 months) I only thank god we live on a walk (grass instead of road) as he has no roadsense at all.

Turns out one of the boys hadn't shut the door properly (double click) and he can open it... but none of the three older boys noticed, only little mindee.

Years ago - I was in my 20s I think I was on the tube in London and a French family were on the train. Mother, Father and several children. The train was really crowded and when it go to their stop they seemed a bit confused about whether to get off. Anyway they decided to get off but in the confusion one of their children (he was about 7 or 8 yrs old I think) got left on the train.

How frightening is that? The little boy was distraught and his parents were obviously incredibly upset on the platform as the train pulled away. The little boy didn't speak any English but I went up to him and held his hand and tried to reassure him - quite difficult to do when there is no common language.

I got off at the next stop with him and found a guard who in fact said he had had a call from the previous station (as had all the stations on that line) saying what had happened and he would call the station where the parents were.

I stayed until his parents arrived (about 15 minutes later) though the guard had said he would look after him. I just thought the poor little boy would be even more worried if I left as we couldn't explain that his parents were coming - well I did try with my pigeon French but it wasn't very successful.

What a nightmare - losing a child on the underground in a foreign country. All's well that ends well though.

Do you remember, after James Bulger went missing, suddenly every toddler was on reins? Now you hardly see them at all.

I have enough of a panic when the dog runs off. Can't imagine what I'll be like when DD becomes more mobile.

we lost ds1 in a medina when he was about 2 - dh thoguth I was looking after him and I thought he was, I was in a shop looking at carpets (as you do) and he was paying the bill in a restaurant so it tooka good 5 minutes before we got back together and realised neither of us had him. I have never been so panicked in my entire life. Even worse, dh was really relaxed and strolling down the road to look for him while I was screeching at him to RUN! He was brought back to us by a young lad after the whole medina was mobilised to look for him. Luckily, as he was fairhaired, he stood out even more. It was like my worst nightmare, running down tiny winding streets and people saying he was just round the corner, then the next, then the next. Thank God he was OK.
At Christmas, at my mums, I was sat drinking and eating chocs when apparently I leapt to my feet and rushed off, mothers instinct, as ds2 had jsut let himself out of the back door into the snow and -5 weather and was heading out down the road. I suppose I must have heard something but not consciously - I jsut know I had to find him right then.
phew

when my eldest dd was 5 (now 13) she somehow got out the front door while i was in the kitchen. i lived in a terrace at the time with a big grass bit at the front and an avenue that ran into the estate. about 30 feet away was a barrier and then dual carriageway. on the other side a park with a river. I know its no excuse but i just looked away for two mins and that was enough for her to be away. i ran all over the estate looking for her and ahd everyone that was about looking as well. it was a Nov day and quite chilly. time just dragged by. afternoon came and went and no sign of her. when the police brought in the police divers and dogs to search in the river i was convinced she was dead and they were not telling me. i remember going into auto pilot, going into the kitchen and saying 'look at all this ironing i need to do'. i think it was my body reacting to the shock. all i could think about was how could i let this happen. my only child (at the time) and i'd killed her in a way, even though no-one had said anything. about an hour later it occured to me to get the police to check the local shopping centre, i dont know why they hadn't done that already. maybe because she would have had to cross a busy carriageway and roundabout to get there and walk through the car park. a call came back saying she wasn't there either. then about an hour later another call. at last she had been found!! She was in the ELC playing with the dolls house. The people who worked there thought she had just walked away from her parents, then when they realised shw was still there 20 mins later they called security. Other shopppers had seen her with an older boy in the mall. Minutes later she was pulling up in the back of the police car with a lolly pop and smiling from ear to ear! I nearly hugged the breath out of her!! The police got the tapes of the security camera from the shop but they ahd recorded over them by that time so nothing was found. The boy that was described to us sounded like a boy who lived a few streets away whose sister and cousin had drowned a while before in a swollen river. They were the same age as my dd. A part of me thinks did he amybe take her by the hand and bring her to the shopping centre as she reminded him of his sibling? Or did he find her there after someone had snatched her and then realised what a terrible thing they had done and left her in the centre where she could be found, and this boy had recognised her? i will never know. it does not bear thinking about. i just know i am so lucky that she came back alive. i know have another 22 aged 15 months and two great step sons as well. I hope i never have to go through anything like that again, or anyone else.

excuse my terrible typing /spelling please i have just read the post and didnt realise! the 22 at the end should be DD! just in case u all thought i had another 22 kids!

when ds was 4 we lost him at Butlins. We'd just got off a little circular train ride, dd1 was fussing and dh and I both thought the other had got ds. After 15 mins desperate searching, as we'd got into more and more of a panic, had contacted the staff etc we suddenly spotted him - still happily going round and round on the train ride. He'd never got off!

I mislaid DS for about 5 minutes at a museum today - ended up panicking and notify the museum staff! I turned around to get his buggy as he was being rather awkward, and he disappeared on me! very scary 5 minutes...

elceeell- bet he thought that was great! Extra rides on train whilst you were out of your mind with worry