Call mum
I took the kids the other night to a fun park filled to the brim with people, and it occured to me how easy it would be to lose them in the crowd. Especially the eldest, whose birthday we were celebrating, and who was running around like an excited little puppy with her friend. That is when the friend’s dad had a stroke of genius: he simply wrote our mobile numbers on their arms with a pen and instructed the kids that, if they ever got lost, they should go up to one of the booths to a person in a uniform and ask them to call the number on their arm. The kids completely got it, and would have known what to do in the case of getting lost! So simple, why had I never thought of that?! (I am sure most of you had, I just wanted to write a post about it, in case you were a bit clueless, like me.)
I remember Courtney telling me a story of how she got lost at a big fair when she was a child and got picked up by a stranger who spent a good hour walking around with her trying to find her parents while her mother was worried sick. At least we can avoid this in the era of mobile phones! BTW, thankfully, no kids got lost on my day out to the park and it was a great birthday celebration.
- Emilie
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In case you’re interested (and you don’t like the idea of the pen, which is of course free), Mabel’s Labels makes a wristband that you can put on their arm if they’re going out for a field trip or anything where you’re worried about them getting lost: http://www.mabel.ca/products/my+411+wristbands
(they also appear to make ones with allergy alerts).
I used to do exactly the same (pen and arm). Then one day my pen didn’t work (and not to forget, what does ink do to the skin…) A friend told me about SOSiD (Dutch site: http://www.sosid.org/ ). Nowadays I have a keychain template which I attach to their coat zippers or belt loop. Never leave home without it when we go out to a big public place where they can easily get lost in the crowd.
We use these Swedish wristbands:
http://www.infoband.com/en/page/infoband-web-shop-consumers.php?logout=true
They have really funky designs which we really love. It also gives us peace of mind when we go out with our very active toddler!
I just saw a little boy at a park the other day with a mobile phone number written down his arm! This must be a well-known thing if they’re even doing it down here in Australia!
It does make total sense.
Courtney, I thought that might appeal to your “safety” dad husband!
That’s brilliant! Especially on the beach or in a swimming pool (if you use waterproof pens, ofcourse ;0))
Here in Holland it’s usually chilly, so my kids war longsleeves most of the times. I therefore use felt name buttons by Mijnes (very stylish too!), that I ordered with my kids name and my cellphone number on it. I clipped it to her jacket, she feels like a princess and I’m feeling a little more safe. That’s a win-win situation!
You can see them here (sorry for the long url):
http://www.mijnes.com/index.php?option=com_virtuemart&page=shop.browse&category_id=38&Itemid=41
Oh my, what a great idea – I’ll definitely be taking tips from here after what happened two weeks ago – lost my almost 3 year old in Ikea for about 5 mins – felt like 5 hours – believe me! Love that Mijnes site – will definitely be ordering from them, thanks for the link!
A friend of mine once suggested to me, taking a photo on your mobile phone of them when going out to busy places so if you do lose them and you are in a panic you have got a photo to show people what they look like and what they were wearing, simple things that can go completely out of your head in the midst of a panic.
Great tips. My kids have my business card in their pocket as they always want to play with what is in my bag. When we go to a busy area, I explain again that they need to show it to someone in a uniform if we loose each other. Also, I have trained them to stand still with arms to the sky1 screaming MUMMY if I go off sight instead of running around looking for me… Although they tend to “train” themselves a bit too often, It works! I came up with this exercise after my two and a half went missing in the middle of the washing machine area of a department store!
Great idea! So simple but brilliant! You could make stickers or temporary tattoos or even a personal stamp with your phone number incorporated to put on your child, so they think they are getting something cool out of it too
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Great Idea
I just got these supercute lost&found buttons from dawanda:
http://en.dawanda.com/product/1059902-Neue-LostandFoundButtons-48-versch-Designs