Lost & found

That's it, I am officially a bad mother. Today I lost Mstr A! I had gone shopping in town with my mother & it was pouring with rain, so we were darting from shop to shop. LMD was in the pram, with LMB toddling alongside, and mstr A trailing behind in a sulk because I'd taken his gameboy away from him. I'm sure he followed us into the shop, but with both girls screaming, my mother dissappeared off to purchase her items, & I assumed he was playing with the catalogues/pens as usual. I collected my items & called for him, & realised he was no-where to be seen.

I calmly checked the whole shop, & and called a couple more times (he's usually very good about staying in sight & coming when called), then checked outside. We'd been there for 10 mins at this point, so I started feeling slightly concerned & reported it to the shop staff. They advised me to report it to the main shopping centre security as they could co-ordinate the search with all the shops, CCTV etc. By the time I got there & found someone to talk to, he'd been gone 15minutes, and I was starting to really worry. I knew that stastistically it was very unlikely that anything had happened, but he's only 5!

When a fully co-ordinated search didn't turn him up qickly, I really started to get stressed. Then I thought to myself "he's a clever lad, self-sufficent & reasonably sensible. He probably would head home" so after half an hour had passed (Its a good 20 min walk home) I phoned home. On the second attempt, he answered the phone & I was able to draw a deep breath, tell him to stay put, & run all the way home to him. A big hug later & all is well. When he couldn't find us, he headed off home, & asked the first adult he saw to help him accross the roads, and make sure he got home safely. THANK-YOU to that man, whoever he was, for doing exactly that.

I think we may need to consider a mobile phone for him - I always said they would have one as soon as they were old enought to go anywhere on their own.

Some things to be thankful for:

• Mstr A knows his name, address & phone no., so I was reasonably certain thaat he would be identified quickly once found.
• We have always been against the "Stranger Danger" concept, teaching our kids that when in trouble they SHOULD go and find an adult.
• We are not so security conscious that we lock every door & window when out, otherwise he wouldn't have been able to get in the house.
• Mstr A has been taught how to answer the phone properly & did so!

Of course, now my mother will have yet another thing to bring up against me - although actually she was very good & cheerfully reminisced about the many, many times she lost/left one of us behind as children, although with 7 of us, she had a bit more of an excuse!