When you are heading out for a day of sight-seeing with your kids, take a moment to have a quick huddle. Remind them the plan should one of them get separated from the group.
Chances are that you don’t lose your toddlers, because you have them in a vice grip so they don’t hurt themselves. Usually it’s the older kids who get misplaced, because you aren’t towing them around by the hand.
Each family has a different plan if a someone gets lost. Ours has always been, step to the side out of the way (if it’s a busy people thoroughfare), stay put, and stay calm. Don’t move around or come looking for us, because then it will be that much harder to find each other. Stay where you are, eventually we will realize that you are missing, hopefully before nightfall, and we will backtrack until we find you.
We make it a simple mantra: Step to the side, stay put, stay calm.
The time record for being lost, goes to the teen daughter of some of our friends. We were in London at the Covent Garden Market, and she was misplaced for 45 minutes. She had forgotten her cell phone. The reason it took her parents so long to realize she was gone, was because we had splintered off into little groups. Some of us were watching longer busker shows. But true to her training, we found her because she stayed put and we backtracked until we found her. Yes she was in tears when we found her.
The extra mitigating factors of being lost while on vacation, is that often you won’t have cell phones with you (roaming fees and all, or you don’t have coverage), kids don’t often remember the name of the hotel where they are staying, the people who are trying to help your child find you may not
speak English.
There are I.D. bracelets that you can buy which have a little pocket. You can put the phone number and address of the hotel where you are staying, put it in the pocket before you go out. The cheaper way of doing this is to write it on a thick rubber band with a sharpie and put it around their wrist or ankle, information in toward their skin to keep it private. Make sure the rubber band isn’t too tight or the kid will remove it. If the child is really lost, an adult who is helping them can leave a message at your hotel telling you where you can connect to pick up your child. The importance of your child having the hotel information on them is especially important if you are visiting a country where they don’t speak English.
For the older kids, they still need the hotel information, just in case they forget or don’t have a cell phone in a foreign country. It’s possible that they could get seriously lost and have no memory as
to the name of the hotel. This is extremely important to reconnecting with them in a strange city with a strange language with no cell phone. Tell them to call the hotel and leave information where their location is.
The one time you have a lost child will be worth all the precautions, so you don’t lose your mind in reconnecting with your lost loved one.