Have you ever experienced the morbid fear that accompanies losing a child in a public place? Few things are scarier than that, ask any parent. At that moment, their mind is all over the place with cold sweat running down their whole body.
This happened to one mom while she was shopping at Kmart in the NSW Hunter Region, Australia. It is commonplace to see parents running around frantically. At intervals, they stop passersby or other shoppers to briefly describe their kid and ask if they have seen him or her.
This mom was busy doing just that when she remembered a TikTok video she saw at one time. The video gave practical suggestions on what to do should you lose a child in a public place.
The Hack
Parenting blogger, Jess Martini, shared a clip that amassed over 152K likes on her TikTok account in November 2020.
She stated in the video:
"Do not start looking silently, you wanna look loudly, and what I mean by that is you start shouting their description while you look"
The mom at Kmart followed this advice and started shouting:
"I'm missing a little boy. He's wearing a yellow shirt and has brown hair. He is 2 years old and his name is Nathan"
Soon enough, mother and son were reunited. The hack worked! Here is the potentially life-saving trick.
Finding A Missing Child: TikTok Hack
As you can see in the video, a full description of what the kid looks like, what they are wearing, their name, and how old they are should be in your description. Also, state them at the top of your voice while you look. This keeps every shopper or passersby on the lookout.
Why The Hack Works
The hack works alerts everyone around you.
The mom at Kmart kept repeating her description. This made other adults around her alert. In a post she shared, she said:
"I had every adult around me on alert. They all threw aside what they were looking at and started searching too"
Prior to this, she explained that one friend ran to the entry immediately to alert the staff members of the mall not to let the boy of this description leave the store even if he was with an adult.
The mom kept searching along each aisle, looking under clothing racks, but to no avail. She soon realized that searching silently would achieve little or nothing. Around this time, she recalled Jess Martini's video and proceeded to look for her kid loudly.
Every Parent's Nightmare
When sharing her ordeal on a Facebook group, this mom described the incident as "the scariest 10 minutes of her life. You can imagine her relief when a male voice sounded behind her with the words "He's here." A man walked past him just as he was hearing her call out. The relief!
Even the best parents can lose their child in a crowd. To prevent it, here are a few tips:
Dress your child in bright colors
Teach them to walk close to you
Make sure he knows his full name
Make him memorize your phone number
Or write your phone number, name, and address on his clothing label or put it in a lapel and pin it to their dress
You can never be too careful with kids. Make sure you remember what he or she is wearing when going out, or take a picture with your phone before stepping out. This hack works for younger kids as well as older ones.
But, you know how the older ones can get embarrassed for shouting their name and description in public. For them, have a place set to meet up in case you lose each other.
Reactions To The Advice And Ordeal
