My feed
Premium

Please
or
to access all these features

For free parenting resources please check out the Early Years Alliance's Family Corner.

Parenting

I lost Dd3 (2) for 15 minutes today

44 replies

Privilegeismine · 30/10/2013 14:22

And I feel like crap.

I had taken dd3 to see the Gruffalo exhibition at the museum a few months ago and it was fab. Dd1 (10), dd2 (7) and ds(5) had been asking to go in half term, so I reluctantly agreed. It involves driving to the train station, 30 min train journey, 10 min walk to the museum.

So, we all go this morning. Kids are fantastically behaved. Journey goes smoothly and they have a great time at the exhibition. We went to have a drink and cake at the cafe, then went into the gift shop. Dd1 and dd2 chose what they wanted straight away. Dd3 was moaning for a drink (just had one at the cafe) and ds was taking forever looking at WW2 stuff. So I put dd3 down and she ran across the shop to dd1. I rushed ds through choosing some stuff and go off to find the others.

That is when I noticed that dd1 didn't have dd3. We checked the shop and she was nowhere to be found. Dd1 ran off into the museum looking for her, setting all the shop alarms off in the process. I told the lady behind the desk "I've lost the baby" and she rang security. I ran the other way and she wasn't there. Came back to the shop and started giving the security guard a description, when dd2 shouts "There she is". She was walking through the museum with a carton of orange juice that she'd been and stolen from the cafe Shock

They were the longest 15 minutes of my life. I've lost dd2 before in a shopping centre but I don't remember it feeling like this. I've already invested in a backpack with reins for future outings but I just feel terrible I allowed this to happen Sad
Oh and I went back and paid for the stolen orange juice!!

OP posts:
Report
hopskipandthump · 30/10/2013 14:24

Poor you. I have 3 kids, I know it can be hard. Reins are a good idea. My 2yo is also a wanderer-offer, I have to physically hold her / strap her into something or she just disappears.

Report
Privilegeismine · 30/10/2013 14:29

She does tend to wonder. I should have thought about reins before but someone is usually holding her hand! Its such a huge museum, if she hadn't come back on her own god knows how we'd have found her.

OP posts:
Report
wheretoyougonow · 30/10/2013 14:30

Don't dwell on it. Nearly every parent has experienced this. My DS went missing in a massive Toys R Us.
Have either a Brew orWineand just treat it as a reminder that we all need eyes in the back of our heads with toddlers.

Report
SinisterSal · 30/10/2013 14:30

What a horrible fright.

Report
Icepilot · 30/10/2013 14:34

You're parenting a runaway and a thief Shock

Seriously - must have been horrid. Really frightening. Be kind to yourself. Xxx


Report
BummyMummy77 · 30/10/2013 14:35

I lost a child I was looking after (not very well obviously) in the science museum once. She must have been about 4 or 5 and crept into one of the little cupboard bits down in The Garden tots area when I was talking to her sister. The little angel shit stayed in there for 25 minutes sniggering her head off. They shut the museum, had announcements etc, I was pretty much hysterical by the time a Mum found her.

I say 'found' she just sat there and watched it all. I've never been so angry and happy at the same time in my life.

She's 15 now and still thinks it's hilarious. Hmm.

Report
takeitonthegin · 30/10/2013 14:43

We've been in that position too. Lost DS1 in Next. I can remember I kept thinking...this cant be happening, please this is not happening. Its a horrible feeling.

My DM lost me when I was about 2 in a busy shopping centre. She told ne she was hysterical.

Wine and some more Wine to get over the ordeal.

Report
ZingWantsCake · 30/10/2013 14:48

my heart skipped a beat!

(bless her though, so independent! Grin )

We have 6 and had hair raising moments with all of them.
Worst was when DS5 choked on a sweet I gave him absent-mindedly.
He would have died if DS2 didn't realize that DS5 was choking.
I saved his life, but honestly it was fucking horrible.

try not to dwell on it, she is fine. and you will be ok too!
(hugs)
and yes, reigns are a good idea.
Wine

Report
Privilegeismine · 30/10/2013 15:20

Thanks everyone! These are making me feel so much better!!

Icepilot its actually the squash and a squeeze exhibition in Birmingham, we just love the Gruffalo part!

OP posts:
Report
bundaberg · 30/10/2013 15:25

i lost ds2 when he was about 3yrs old, at bewilderwood in norfolk.

i was fucking terrified! it's in a forest, with rivers and lakes... i found a member of staff who seemed to have NO idea what to do. I was concerned that they didn't have some kind of missing child policy that involved alerting other members of staff and stuff, given the risks.

we'd been in a playground area. I'd checked the exits, and sat so I could see both of them. unfortunately i'd missed one :(

my kids all had luminous "if i;m lost" wristbands on, but none of the people who'd seen ds2 had looked at his, so they were utterly pointless.
we found him eventually in the maze, he'd wet himself and was very sad.

Report
Privilegeismine · 30/10/2013 15:26

Oh my god thats awful Sad

OP posts:
Report
LEMisafucker · 30/10/2013 15:29

my heart is pounding on your behalf - how scary for you - so glad she was found.

Report
Icepilot · 30/10/2013 15:32

Oh no!

I write my mobile number on my kids arms in biro on the way in to anywhere busy. They think it's hilarious. I'm always trying to teach them if they get lost To find a woman with children and ask for help (I know how stereotypical that sounds, but fuck it, it's no good trying to be PC).

It's like time slows down though.

It happened to me last year. I turned into a banshee. At ascot racecourse of all places.

Report
Privilegeismine · 30/10/2013 16:04

I might try writing on their arms in biro!! Even on the train I was going through what to do if you get lost with the older ones, but dd3 was only 2 at the end of June......

OP posts:
Report
bundaberg · 30/10/2013 16:09

I decided in future to use giant stickers on their backs with my phone number on... although the place we were at had no phone signal either Hmm

it's sooooooooo scary though isn't it?

Report
Privilegeismine · 30/10/2013 16:40

It feels like hours even though its just a few minutes. I kept thinking of her walking out into Birmingham city centre Sad

OP posts:
Report
Oblomov · 30/10/2013 16:43

It's happened to many of us. Don't feel bad.

Report
dogindisguise · 30/10/2013 20:59

That sounds scary but glad she was fine. I don't know how you cope with four! I have my hands full with two.

When I went to the Just So Festival they had wristbands for children to write the parents' phone numbers on - maybe there's something similar for general use?

Report
Icepilot · 30/10/2013 21:01

Yeah - I bet you could get one...

Off to google again!

Report
SolomanDaisy · 30/10/2013 21:06

God, that must have been awful. I lost DS for about 30 seconds on a ferry and I had time to imagine every worst case scenario, I'd have been a wreck after 15 minutes.

Report
girlylala0807 · 30/10/2013 21:08

DS did this to me in a shopping centre. I was stood at a till paying turned to hand over the money looked back and he had gone. 2 seconds I had turned round. He was 3.

I went out of the shop and my mum started saying...omg, omg, have you never heard of Jamie Bulger...

Thanks mum.
Found him 5 minutes later in the toy shop.

Report
topknob · 30/10/2013 21:11

We lost dd1 once, it was at the time Maddie McCann went missing so you were more aware if you know what I mean and they were the same age. We were in a bed linen shop and she just wasn't there any more, we searched the shop and nothing, went outside back to the shops we had been to nothing, a lady who saw me crying came and helped, dh found a security guard who helped, she wasn't anywhere. I went back to the bed linen shop and searched again, the staff were totally useless, couldn't care less..and then I found her, hidden in a corner with a doll she had seen on a display in the shop.

Please do not dwell your kids are safe xx

Report

Don’t want to miss threads like this?

Weekly

Sign up to our weekly round up and get all the best threads sent straight to your inbox!

Log in to update your newsletter preferences.

You've subscribed!

Moreisnnogedag · 30/10/2013 21:13

Oh op my heart was in my boots just reading that. Ugh that feeling of pure outright fear.

I'm sure it's going to happen with DS - he seems to have no fear. We were in Barcelona and I'd let him walk in front of me (literally 5 m in a quiet area) and for no reason at all he decided to run straight at the road as a single car came up it. I yanked him back and we both had a cry!

Report
Icepilot · 30/10/2013 21:14

My dd would love one of these

Report
RobinSparkles · 30/10/2013 21:17

You poor thing!

We lost DD2 in Tesco once. She was about 20 months and was standing between me and DH while we were paying at the till. I looked down and she was gone.

It was awful. We got members of staff to help look for her.

I finally spotted her in a staff members arms at customer services. Apparently she had been found by a member of staff just outside the doors.

I felt awful. It had taken literally a split second but she could have been taken or hit by a car :(.
She was always on the reins from that moment or stayed in the trolley!

Report
Please create an account

To comment on this thread you need to create a Mumsnet account.