Losing your child in a crowd is every parent’s nightmare. From a very young age, however, it is essential to teach him the right reflexes to avoid panic and find him more easily.
When traveling abroad, in an amusement park, at the beach or on the shelves of a store… Losing sight of your child, especially in a crowd where it will be difficult to find them, is one of parents’ worst nightmares. And for the little ones, it’s an ordeal too: separated from their parents and not knowing where they are, it’s total anguish. Families therefore do everything to ensure that this never happens, but unfortunately, despite all the precautions taken, it can happen in a fraction of a second. A moment of inattention, a movement of the crowd, something that catches the child’s eye and, in a few seconds, he disappears. “I turned my head for a second to talk to a saleswoman in a crowded store, and when I looked at my 3-year-old daughter, she was already gone. She had started running up and down the aisles, and I imagined the worst“, confides Marie, a young mother.
If the child is not immediately aware that he is moving away, it is important to anticipate this type of situation because, if he does not know what to do, in panic, he will have difficulty thinking. To find him quickly and avoid bad encounters, we can therefore teach him certain reflexes, as Élodie (@elo_familytrip), creator of family trips with children, does with her own daughter. These rules are not intended to “scare him”but to ensure “that she knows what to do and feels safe”she explains in an Instagram post.
This traveling mother therefore lays down the rules that she instilled in her daughter so that she knows how to react if they get lost, and the first is not to shout “mom” or “dad” but the first and last name of her parents “so that other adults can more easily help us”. The second essential thing, according to Élodie, is to teach children to stay put: “We explain to her that we will definitely look for her and that it will be much easier to find her if she doesn’t continue to walk everywhere.”
Élodie also makes sure that her daughter knows her parents’ telephone numbers. This is a very important thing that can be useful in everyday life, not just when traveling. There are many ways to do this, and this mother favors fun methods, for example inventing a song. Finally, she taught her little daughter to “find a mother with children”. For her, a mother “will often be more reassuring for her”And “as a parent, she will do anything to help him.” Of course, a police officer on the street, security personnel at a store, or lifeguards at a beach will be people a child can approach.
This mother ends by explaining that she gives her daughter a reminder of these rules before each trip, always in a fun way. “We turn it into a little game before departure, so that it remains reassuring and never anxiety-inducing”she indicates, before concluding: “And honestly… It also reassures parents a lot.”
