We had a little scare here the other night, but I turned out to be a real laugher. I had gone to bed early because I had to get an early start the next day. I was sound a sleep when my wife came in woke me up and asked in a very concerned voice if I knew where out 3 year old son was. I said in bed and she said "No he is not and I can't find him." No I am half a sleep and half panicked. We ran around the house calling his name and looking every where we thought he might be. I was starting to have those thoughts about some freak sneaking in the house and taking him. I picked up the phone to call 911 and went into his room one last time to look around and saw his toes sticking out from under his bed. The picture is worth a thousand words. Needless to say I didn't get enough sleep and was dragging ass the next day.
[img]Http://home.att.net/~scbaumbach/chuck.jpg[/img]

Yes, it happened to me once with my daughter and once with my granddaughter. Both times were typically the same as yours, but both times took years off my lifespan.

The incidents were so frightening that I cannot even bring myself to discuss them now, without a lot of angst!

I cannot even imagine what it must be like to actually lose a child and never find them again!

It would be the end of my life, period.

Eric The(JustShovelTheDirtInOnTopOfMe!)Hun[>]:)]

i hate that!
ever since my 2yr old figured out how door knobs work i've had my share of..."it's too quiet in here where's the boy at?" only to find him sleeping in his closet or playing quietly in his room under his bed.  i quickly invested in door knob covers and the big guy is working on getting around those!

oh by the way,
my wife thinks that pic is just adorable.

Great pic!!

My first grey hairs came in two and a half years ago.  Oddly enough, that's the same age as my son.  I'm getting more all the time.

Not me personally, but my friends sister had her daughter stolen by a babysitter (Family friend too!), who took her from FL to TX, planning on keeping her forever... They got her back 4 days later, but to see the look on that poor girls face... She was walking dead after the 3rd day.

Oh man that picture is great!!  Kids are a pain in the ass but I cant think of anything  I love more! (including guns!)

From my experiences, it seems most toddlers get "lost" in the house - adults never "really" know where all the good hiding spots are at.  When children get older (mine's 8 now) they can make it off to all kinds of places. That's scary too. For future reference; teach your kid that if you all get seperated at a store, to go to a cashier and wait there for you to find them. DO NOT go to the "office" or anywhere else. Pretty much all cashiers have intercom/paging systems to announce a lost child. Many stores have their cashiers towards the front - more visible!  A teacher I know related a story about her sister's kid who waited after the announcement of "lost child" and some stranger walked up, smacked the child on the rear (inducing crying) and said outloud, "There you are, I TOLD you to never leave my side!!!" or something to that affect, and proceeded to haul the kid off. Apparantly this ended happily.
I also teach all the kids at my daughter's school (grades K-3) what to do if lost in the woods. I have a video/booklet package that I use (not of my own design, but a great program). I give these classes in the Spring before school lets out. This year I'll start doing the Eddie Eagle program there.
p.s. Great Picture!
WSmac

At the base commissary in 1966 (3yrs), I was left on the check out counter while the rest of them headed out to the car.  I can't remember any of this, but the family says I was never the same again....

Don't worry SatCong, WE'RE your family now![}:D]

For years ago at the Ft.Lauderdale Shell Air & Sea Show( a HUGE airshow on Ft. Lauderdale beach)We "Lost" my daughter who was 8 at the time. Left the girlfirend(who is now the wife)w/ my daughter to go to the bathroom.Came back about 15 min later, and asked my girlfriend where Elizabeth was, & her terrifying reply was, "diddent she go with you?"
Mind you this is a verry large airshow w/ a crowd of over 1 million people. Thank God my daughter had the sense to go find a cop when she realized she was alone. We found her 5 min later at the lost kids trailer. Unbelivably their were 11 children there ,one of which had been there for over TWO HOURS. Makes ya wonder about some parents who dont even know that their child is missing.
echo6

My then 15 year old daughter asked her mother (from whom I was divorced) if she could go to Panama City Beach with some friends.  After being told no, she went anyway.  That is worse than going without asking.  Her mom called me in a panic and told me what had happened.  I got from her the name of all the kids in the group and started calling hotels in PCB.  Finally found one that had one of the names registered and the desk clerk verified the car.  I told her not to say anything, that I would be there in 5 hours.  Should have seen the look on all the kid's faces when daddy showed up at the door with a PCB police officer in tow.  Took Michelle into my custody and the other kids had to go to the cooler until their parents came down from Atlanta (where I lived at the time).  Got back to Atlanta after a very quiet ride (her life was threatened if she opened her mouth-she knew daddy was pissed).  Went to her mom's house, who was also very pissed.  Up until then, mom has been way too permissive with Michelle and she thought she would get away with this.  In the past, if I threatened to take a belt to her, mom always protected her.  Not this time.  Mom told her she was on her own.  Made a big change in Michelle's life, because now mom would not block dad's method of discipline.  Michelle told me years later that the incident straightened her up.  

Well, this is kind of a couldn't find a kid story.

Once my 4 y/o daughter thought it would be funny to hide inside a car at the grand prix track at Disneyworld, you know those stupid cars on the rails. I'll never forget the sheer terror as I ran around looking for her, hoping to catch a glimpse of whoever I was sure had kidnapped her (I have a vivid imagination).
When my wife finally saw her pop her head up after a good while, I had that "thank God you're O.K./ I'm gonna kill you" thought in my head, which every parent here can identify with.

Lost track of one of the kids, Honey?  Just go out to the front porch, whistle loud and see which way the dogs come from.  They always follow the kids.

Quick Texas Tale:  When I was about seven and my brother was one, a strange dog wandered onto our place without our dogs knowing.  The strange dog found my brother crawling up the front walk and started to show its teeth at him.  At the moment the dog growled at my baby brother, my Mother and I saw what was going on and froze in shock and fear.  From around the corner of the house, our English setter came faster than we ever saw a dog move.  Mouth open he hit the strange dog and literally broke its neck.  For the rest of its life, that dog ate better than us.

Scariest thing that ever happened to me. My wife and I were at the mall with our 2yr old and 1yr old in a front and back double stroller. We met my wife's two cousins and their kids for lunch at the food court. The one year old was sleeping in the back of the stroller, so we left him in there reclined. We took the two year old out and sat him at the table with us. The mall was pretty packed. People were everywhere.

About ten minutes into the meal, one of the cousins says: "Hey, where's the baby?"
Sure enough I look in the stroller and no baby. My wife totally panicked and was almost instantly in tears. I felt like my heart was going to explode out of my chest. I have never had my heart rate increase so rapidly before or since. I flew up so fast I sent the chair flying. I started to scan the crowd looking for my kid. I never knew that the brain can have so many concurrent trains of thought. Not only was I formulating a plan, scanning the crowd, having flashbacks of my kid's life, and retracing my steps, but I was also planning how I was going to kill whoever took my kid. Before I could do anything else, the other cousin said: "Here he is!"
He had slipped down into the basket under the stroller, where he was sleeping soundly.

The whole thing was over in two seconds at the most but it felt like years. I can't imagine what it would be like to never find your kid. I would suspend the Constitution to find my kid if he was missing.

It really pisses me off when people hurt their kids. I can't even comprehend it. Their wiring must be all screwed up.

So let me get this straight.  You take naps while you are supposted to be watching a 2 year old child?  My God do you not know the definition of parenting??  I have two kids and not once did my wife or myself not know where they were!!

It isn't that hard folks, it called responsibility, and I for one take it seriously! Maybe if you would suck it up and have your wifes stay home instead of working this crap wouldn't happen!(I know...ya gotta have that new car)  The demise of the traditional family is the leading cause of most of this worlds problems today IMHO.

Randall-Flag

PS Yea, I know I'll get flamed, but someone had to say it.[:(]

No, it did not have to be said, especially by someone who has 35 posts and can't spell.  Why does everything have to turn into some kind of flaming or pissing contest.  What you said is also not true, just your opinion.

Back when my son was three(he is six now), he would go out and play with his sister and his aunt and uncle (long story, they are the same age as my kids, they also live on the same compound).  They play all day long, horses, dogs, cats, a play fort in the back the size of a small house.

They come in for dinner, all except billy, they hadn't seen him for an hour or so, so I go outside to look for him, and the first thing I see is his life jacket floating in the middle of our lake (about a 14 acre lake).  

I nearly crap myself with fear, yell for my wife and the nanny, my father and his wife and the bunch of us are in the lake diving around trying to get to the bottom of this lake (about 25 feet deep).

This goes on for about 5 minutes, with the whole crowd getting more and more desperate, my wife and I are both in tears as we are diving under the water, when what do we see, billy at the top of the fort, watching us with much interest.

It's funny, the kids know not to go in the water, and all of them said that they hadn't gone into the water, but one look at the life jacket and I *knew* he was in the water, he wasn't.  He had fallen asleep in the castle.

Needless to say, lots of upset.

It gives me the willys to read some of the other stories, fortunately they all ended happily. I can't imagine what I would do if someone really did hurt one of my kids. Nothing in my life means more to me than my kids.

BTW; This happened between 11:30p.m. and midnight. My carpet commandos were sound asleep in their beds at 9:30p.m. when I went to bed.

Never lost the kid, but I did seem to lose my father several years back.