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Losing Amanda

At Eleanor's birthday party, Amanda got fed up pretty quickly with our preparations. There was a playground, so she wandered down to play by herself. Then I think she got confused about which way our shelter was (it's not one of the ones we usually see at the park) so she went down the path, looking for our birthday party.

Meanwhile, we finished with the preparations (Michael was hanging up balloons, I was setting out table cloths and such) and Michael went with the first few kids down to the playground. I thought Amanda was with him, he thought she was with me. Neither of us knew something was wrong until we saw her walking up to the playground, cowboy hat in hand, with a strange parent. "Is this your child?"

I think what happened was she didn't find our shelter, but found another shelter where there was another birthday party. One of the parents figured out what was going on, and looked for another birthday party at the park. She knew our names, and she was working on remembering our telephone number (we taught it to Eleanor on our last trip to the zoo). She says she wasn't scared, and I think she's pleased about the cowboy hat. I'm glad no one tried to feed her, although I'm pretty sure she would have asked about allergies before eating anything.

I was hesitating about whether to post this, but a post from the Free Range Kids website helped me decide. Apparently almost everyone has a "lost kid" incident, most end happily. Right now I am feeling bad about losing Amanda on the one hand, and then feeling bad that I don't feel bad enough---she got back ok, she found helpful parents, so I can't seem to work up too much angst. I do know that I don't want to have someone else bring back my kid to me again. I also know that if I ever meet a lost kid, I'll do my best to bring her back safely and happily to her parents.
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C. L. Hanson said…
Once, when I was little, my parents lost me in Central Park in NYC! Fortunately they found me again.

When we're on vacation, I usually write my mobile phone number on a couple slips of paper, and put them in the kids' pockets (telling them where they are). Of course my kids are so used to constant supervision that they'll spontaneously start yelling "Mommy! Mommy!" if I'm out of their sight for about thirty seconds...
April 26, 2009 at 6:52 AM
mathmom said…
C. L.---That is so funny! We might be going to NYC this summer, I'll try not to lose Amanda in in Central Park...

Luke tends to keep pretty careful track of where I am, but Amanda probably wouldn't notice if I were gone for a couple of hours. She's always been pretty self sufficient, which I put down to being a middle child with two high-intensity siblings.
April 26, 2009 at 8:07 PM
Lenise said…
Isaac is the same way, but it was Jay we lost, last year at BCBSNC Family day. He was quickly rescued, but not before the whole company heard that my child was lost (that's what I get for letting Daddy take two kids to the inflatable slide!)
April 28, 2009 at 12:19 AM
mathmom said…
Hi Lenise! I think that the most convenient part of Amanda being lost was that we didn't realize she was lost until she was found. Actually, I realized that I hadn't seen her for a while just as the other parent brought her back.

Watching 2 kids in a crowd is tricky, unless they stick close to you naturally.
April 28, 2009 at 6:54 AM
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