What to Do Before Kids Get Lost in a Crowd
June 30, 2005 — -- While some vacationers head to the great outdoors this summer, others will take their families to amusement parks, county fairs, shopping malls, water parks and other large -- and busy -- holiday destinations.
Regardless of the destination, parents should be aware of the steps they can take before they leave home to prepare their kids for the possibility they might get lost in a crowd.
Van Rice, vice president of operations and assistant general manager at Sea World Orlando, said that in the busy summer season, lost children come with the territory for large theme parks. "It's a regular daily occurrence. We can have multiple lost children in any given day."
One of the first things parents should teach their children is that being lost isn't shameful, and that they shouldn't be embarrassed to admit they are lost. At the same time, parents shouldn't hesitate or be embarrassed to ask for help quickly if they can't find a child.
"The quicker they inform a park employee of the child being lost, the quicker we can get them reunited," Rice said.
The wandering attention of parents is often a contributing factor.
"Parents tend to get caught up with looking at maps and show schedules, trying to plan their day," Rice said.
Add to that children's lack of impulse control, and the situation is ripe for a child to go missing.
"Younger children are anxious, and move from one attraction to another pretty quickly, where mom and dad stay behind a bit," said Robin Innes, director of public relations for Cedar Point, an amusement park near Sandusky, Ohio.
So, given that children can be quickly separated from the group, what should be the next lesson parents teach them? Many families employ some version of the rule "don't talk to strangers" or "stranger danger." While parents may be comfortable with this rule for everyday situations, it can be counterproductive when a child is lost. In the case of Brennan Hawkins, the 11-year-old who went missing while attending a Boy Scout outing in the Utah mountains, his parents said that part of the reason he spent four nights alone in the woods was that he hid from search and rescue team members.
Doug Ritter, publisher and editor of the Web site equipped.org, said that the employees of shopping malls, amusement parks and other similar summer destination spots deal with children who go missing on a regular basis.
"The most critical point … is to teach the child to look around and find a responsible adult, working at the mall or amusement park, and simply go up to them and tell them 'I'm lost.' If you can get a child to do that," he said, "most of these malls, parks, all deal with this stuff every day [and have] procedures in place to deal with it."
Rice echoed that advice, and suggested that parents "point out to the children some of the park employees, so they can see what they're wearing, what their uniform's like, and maybe go up and talk to them. So [then] the child understands it's OK to talk to the employee of the park. That's the quickest way for us to be able to get information from a child that's lost and find out how we can get in touch with their parent."
And once parents have realized that their child is missing and decided it's time to involve park employees or security officers, what should they do?
"The first thing we try to do is calm them down as much as we can and try to get a description of what they [the missing child] look like and what they are wearing so we can … start the search process," Rice said.
Parents who are flustered at having lost track of a child may not be able to provide the best description of their child, or remember what they were wearing that day. Ritter suggests that digital cameras may provide one solution. "It doesn't cost anything to take a photo [on a digital camera] -- take a photo as you're going out."
Cedar Point's Innes said that it's a good idea for parents to write down their cell phone number for younger children, or as at his park, use the KidTrack system -- a park-provided wristband that has the cell phone and other vital information on it. For older children, he recommended parents designate an easily recognizable landmark and tell children to go directly there as soon as they are separated from their group.
And he seconded Rice's advice that quick action is always the best idea. "Certainly, safety's No. 1 -- notify [us] early." He also said that park officials take into consideration the age of the child and whether they're traveling in a group or alone to help with the search process.
Several of the people contacted for this article had similar suggestions:
Teach children who they should ask for help in case they get lost
Children should also be taught to stay put once they realize they are lost
Take a digital picture of the child and what they're wearing at the beginning of the day
Parents should be able to describe what their child looks like, age, name, what they are wearing and where they last saw them
Parents can provide family members with cell phones or inexpensive FRS radios (walkie-talkies) to keep in touch when separated in a crowd
Put parents' cell phone number in a pocket or pin it inside the child's clothing, and teach the child to show this information to the adult they ask for help
Parents may want to dress their children in bright, distinctive clothing so they are more easily spotted in a crowd
For older children, designate an easily recognized landmark as the rendezvous point in case they become separated from the group
Finally, having a child go missing, for any length of time, can be frightening for a parent. Once you've been reunited with your child, Ritter has another piece of advice.
"It is a rare child who doesn't get lost at some time or another," Ritter said. "One of the most difficult things for parents to understand is this is not the time for recriminations. Getting lost is not a sin. Don't berate the child."
When the child has followed parents' guidelines for getting found, parents should "bite their tongue and tell the kid how they did the right thing," he said.