I am lost | 2011

Ever since Jakjak learned how to walk on his own, one of my greatest fears had been him walking too far off on his own, and getting lost. So in the early days of learning how to walk, my eyes rarely wandered off him. This, sometimes surprisingly, gets me stuck in the ladies lingerie section of malls (thankfully, those dagger-stares turn into looks of approval once they see the little guy merrilly walking about under the black satin panties).

When Jakjak learned how to run, this fear magnified by 5. When you are under 3 feet tall, you can duck and fit practically anywhere! Which becomes a problem for this not-so-petite build of mine. The last time he did his duck and weave, Jakjak went through the ladies dressing room! I don't think running after him through there would have done my health any good. Even more surprising, he showed up from the other side of the dressing room (apparently, the room was a walk through room)!

In time, we managed to talk him into walking back when he loses sight of us, to shout "mum" or "dad" when he feels lost, or to look for a "police officer" (we got this from one of his story books) or security guard in case he could not find us, and to never talk to strangers when he is wandering about. This last point he seems to be having problems understanding, but at the very least, he informs the stranger that he is with his mum and dad and points to us and he does this only when we are around as well.


Those reminders aside, he once got himself lost in Toys R' Us. While we were confident that he would do what we had taught him to do in case he got lost, he got into a state of panic and ran around crying, looking for us. Not too bad for his first time getting lost. After some re-assurance, he got lost again sometime after, in a different Toys R' Us outlet. Luckily, Customer Service was near that outlet and a good samaritan brought him to the counter. Mum eventually found him there, obviously scared with tears brimming in his eyes, but at least he only cried when he saw Mum. coming to pick him up. 

He had some more near misses after that, and he still manages to get himself "slightly" lost from time to time. But so far, he has been able to pull himself together and attempts to look for us first before anything else. Until he gets embedded with his own tracking device though, my eyes are still on that kid as much as possible.