How Could She Not Know Her 2 Year Old Was Missing?
Posted on October 13th, 2009 by Maryann in ParentingHow Could She Not Know Her 2 Year Old Was Missing?
Earlier this week my daughter and I were returning home from our usual early morning coffee run, when she saw a young child wandering down the street alone, who couldn’t have been more than 3 years old. As we live about 500 metres from the river, it was quite disturbing to see what appeared to be, a young toddler wandering toward the river and the main street in our suburb.
I pulled the car over as Steph jumped out and stopped this little boy in his tracks. Wearing his older sister’s shoes, on the wrong feet no less, he tried to tell us his name. Judging by his height and size I guessed he was about 2 years old.
Trying to find out how and why he was wondering the streets was near to impossible due to his inability to communicate. After many attempts to find out where his Mummy lived we began asking locals who were scurrying off to catch the ferry in their suits and carrying their briefcases. Luckily where we live is a relatively peaceful suburb in Brisbane Australia, and I managed to stop a gentleman in a suit who had just come from a nearby apartment complex and he was kind enough to accompany my daughter back into the building in an attempt to find this little boy’s mother. While they did their investigating I again sat with this dear little boy in an attempt to have him “point out” where he lived. The man in the suit emerged; he had done all he could, and went on his merry way, unfortunately no luck there.
The little boy was pointing to the top of an apartment complex and as he did so a young man approached us and asked us if we needed help. He lived in the complex so was more than happy to let us into this gated complex. We did so, and holding this little boy’s hand in mine, walked past the swimming pool to the other side of the complex, up one flight of stairs to the first floor where he hesitated and looked at each apartment door. He decided none of these was home to him, and took us up yet another flight of stairs where miraculously he walked right up to the front door and said “Mummy”.
As my daughter knocked on the door we truly believed this could not be home to this little boy. When the woman opened the door we asked if she had been missing her son, and as we did so she fell to the floor sobbing uncontrollably. Her two older children who couldn’t have been more than 4 and 6 years old stood by the door, failing to understand the enormity of what could have happened to their little brother. She explained that she put the TV on for them to watch as she took a shower.
I explained to her that we had been searching for someone to claim him for over 25 minutes and could not comprehend that she didn’t know he was missing. This 2 year old had managed to open the apartment door, walk down 3 flights of stairs, past a swimming pool, get through the incoming gate to the complex (I still don’t know how or whether someone let him out) and headed off down the street. Another 3 minutes and he would have ended up in the river or run over by someone in the main street.
What started out as an ordinary day for us became something that quite honestly distressed me more as the day progressed. As a parent myself, I know I took showers every morning when my children were small, but would I not have checked for safety first? The child was missing for over 25 minutes, how long does a shower take? As a parent, wouldn’t you leave the shower door open and perhaps have the little 2 year old in the bathroom with you. As a parent wouldn’t you attend to the basics of safety? Can the child get out of the apartment and if so how?
Honestly as parents we are horrified when a little child goes missing, but to be frank I can now see how easily this can happen. As parents we really do need to treasure our babies and understand they rely on us for their complete safety.
The most astonishing thing of all??? The family only just moved from New Zealand to Australia less than 5 days prior. What an incredible little boy to be able to find his way home….
By MaryAnn Roche.
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