A few months ago, I saw a young child walk out of a store without her parent. I followed at a discreet distance. I didn’t want to approach the girl unless it was necessary, and when the parent came out of the store, she could tell that I was keeping an eye on the girl and thanked me.
I thought about this thread yesterday at Target. I was looking at clothes and saw a little girl, 4ish, looking scared and about to cry. I asked her if she lost her mommy and she started crying. So I said happily, “Don’t worry! Let’s go find her!” and took her hand (and thought DON’T PICK HER UP lolol) and started for the service desk. In one minute, a frantic mom came down the aisle. Turns out she likes to hide from her mom. All is good.
Once we came across a lost little boy in a hotel parking lot (big hotel on the Oregon Coast, where doors open up onto walkways) and took him to the office. I asked his name, and he said, “Jacob” and then I asked his last name, so we could tell the people in the office. When he didn’t reply, I asked again and he said, adorably crossly, “I’m thinking!!” So now sometimes in our family we’ll say, “I’m thinking!!” when we ask each other a question too many times.
I was in a video store with my S who was about 3. One moment he was looking at the covers of the videos 3 ft away from me, and the next he was gone. I dashed frantically around the store trying to find him, to no avail, then went outside…and there he was, standing next to our car in the parking lot. A GP-aged couple was standing there with him. They had seen him standing there and decided to wait with him until his no-doubt frantic parent appeared. They were very nice and I thanked them profusely. Apparently he had just made straight for the door, while I wasted time trying to find him in the store. The person at the desk said they hadn’t seen him. Thank doG he wasn’t run over! His rescuers were very understanding and said something to the effect that it has happened to all of us at some point. 