An Important Tip For Parents Whose Kid Wanders Off

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Losing track of your kid while in a public, or sometimes private, place is a scary feeling for any parent.

Anyone with kids, especially toddlers, has been in a situation where they can't find their child all of a sudden and then panic begins to set in. You could be in a dressing room in a department store and your child wanders off, you could be at the grocery store and they took a turn down the cereal aisle as you were trying to skip it or you're in a busy festival setting or at the zoo and you get separated from your kid. Getting separated from your kid could happen just about anywhere.

I can recall that happening to me once. My daughter just wandered off while we were talking to a sales clerk in a department store, thankfully we located her right away hiding within a rack of clothes. It's the most terrifying feeling at the time because quite often you're thinking that someone has kidnapped them. Years ago when I worked at Six Flags Over Texas, I would encounter 'missing parents', as we called them, never missing kids, on a daily basis because there were just too many people and they just somehow got separated. In those cases, the parents and kid were always reunited.

Now if this has happened to you and you've become separated from your child and you can't find them, oftentimes you begin searching for them by yourself without alerting anyone to the fact that your child is missing. You'll wander around the store in hysterics looking for your precious little one. This is in stark contrast to what you should be doing according to TikTok'er Jess Martini.

What should you do if you become separated from your child in a store?

Jess Martini suggests you should be calling attention to the fact that you have become separated and you're desperately looking for your child. You should be saying in a loud voice a description of your child and saying something to the fact of:

I'm looking for a boy age 5, short brown hair, brown eyes, caucasion, red monkey t-shirt, black shorts."

@jesmartini PSA that I feel can save kids and I’ve used- if your child goes missing in public #momsoftiktok #PSA #nojudgement #fyp #4up #besafe #parentsoftiktok ♬ original sound - Jess martini

Continue saying this description over and over until you locate your child. Yes, you might feel weird and silly saying it, but it could help you get reunited with your child sooner than searching for them in silence. And in the event that is someone is trying to abduct your child, you are putting it out there that if they see a child matching the description, they know something is wrong.

Jess says despite being the best parent on the planet, things happen. It's happened to her a couple of times and using this method, she was reunited with them quickly.