Friday Loose Bloggers Consortium: Letting Go

Upon seeing the topic today, and after writing my last post, I remembered a time when one of my children became lost.  We were shopping in Walmart, and all four kids were with me.  My youngest was about two years old at the time.  My second child, a son, asked if I would take the youngest out of the grocery cart and let him hold his hand to walk with him.  I told him I didn't want to take him out of the grocery cart because he might get lost.  My son, who was about 10 years old at the time, promised that he would hold his hand and not let go.  I decided that since we were all walking together, that there was no harm, and I let him.

I think only a minute or two passed before I realized that my son had let go of his brother's hand, and that my little one had disappeared.  I'm not one to panic, so I called his name, and we all looked in the immediate vicinity.  I knew better than to let my time lapse before acting, so I quickly told my oldest child to run to the front of the store and make sure no one walked out with my baby.  I then quickly found a Walmart employee and asked for help.

You may know John Walsh, who is the host of "America's Most Wanted".  You may recall that his own son was kidnapped and brutally murdered after being abducted from a store.  His mother had let him play in the toy department while she shopped, and someone grabbed him.  Because of this event, Walmart instituted the "Code Adam" emergency procedure in their stores.  When a "Code Adam" is sounded, all of the employees stop what they are doing and canvass their area for the missing child.  This is a great procedure, and I applaud Walmart, and other stores that have put it in to effect.

So when I told the employee that my son was missing, she alerted the other employees of the store, and a search was begun.  Within only a couple of minutes, my son was found.  He was only about 2 years old (maybe even younger) but he had decided to make his way to the toy section.  He took of RUNNING down the aisle, and was found running straight toward the toy department.  Needless to say, he spent the rest of the shopping trip, as well as future trips, riding in the grocery cart.  He's almost 15 now, do you think I can let go of his hand yet?  ;)

Check out how the other consortium members have been "letting go".

Rummuser, Anu, Ashkok, Gaelikka, Grannymar, , Padmum, Magpie11, andAkanksha,Will Knot, Maria the Silver Fox, Anki, Nema Noor Paul Plain Joe, and Rohit, Black watertown, The Old Fossil, our newest member MAXI! and last, but not least SHACKMAN! :)