The musings of a juggling mother

Rants & raves about life as a woman today, juggling work, home, kids, family, life the universe & everything.

© Mrs Aginoth. The right of Mrs Aginoth to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents act 1988

Saturday, October 08, 2005

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!

6 Comments:

  • At Saturday, October 08, 2005 8:50:00 pm, Blogger craziequeen said…

    Well done to Mstr A - a big hug from me too :-)

    What a big boy :-)

    CQ

     
  • At Saturday, October 08, 2005 10:05:00 pm, Blogger Wyndham said…

    I love a happy ending. Having temporarily mislaid your husband, I can imagine it must have been hideous. Did he get his Gameboy back?

     
  • At Saturday, October 08, 2005 10:46:00 pm, Blogger Juggling Mother said…

    No, we completely forgot about the gameboy!

    Although if you are going to lose your children, it's best not to do it in front of your mother!

     
  • At Sunday, October 09, 2005 4:01:00 am, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    What a horrifying and yet happy story! Well done to you and Mstr A!

     
  • At Sunday, October 09, 2005 8:17:00 pm, Blogger Juggling Mother said…

    I teach child protection courses & I KNOW that statistically virtually all kidnapping cases are from within the family (as are nearly all physical & sexual abuses of children). I KNOW that the chances of having your child snatched off the street are smaller than winning the lottery. I KNOW that the liklihood of his being taken against his will from a busy high street store in the middle of a Saturday afternoon are atronomical, so I was mostly calm. To be honest, the thought of explaining to the police that I hadn't actually seen my 5 year old son leave the shop was more worrying than the remote possibility something awful had happened.

    However, as time went on, I couldn't help the doubt creeping in, and the knowledge of some of the accidents children get involved in didn't help!

    Knowing he is very self-suficient was a bonus in keeping the worry at bay, although had he been a little less sure of himself we would probably have found him quicker! On the whole I think I'll say it's a good thing - at least now I know he can get himself around safely. Although I would have preferred to find out in other circumstances!

     
  • At Monday, October 10, 2005 4:00:00 pm, Blogger Unknown said…

    My mother did once manage to leave my little sister on a tube platform in Barcelona... My mother (god bless her addled self) couldn't figure out how to undo the doors, my resourceful sister managed and stepped off the train leaving my Mum on the now departing train in complete hysterics.

    At this point my 13 (looking about 16) year old sister was approached by a group of very helpful Spanish men who fawned over her for the 15 minutes it took my Mum to get back to the platform and reclaim her...I'm still not sure my sister wanted to be reclaimed at that point though...

     

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