Vent - Incident in supermarket car park!

mountainofdebt

many moons ago we were driving past the local brewer's fayre pub when we spotted a toddler running towards the main road.

We stopped and I got out to stop the child from going any further. The driver of the car in front of us also stopped and we both took the child back into the pub to see if we could find the mum.

Spoke to a member of staff in their play area and explained what had happened. The mum obviously saw us with her child and demanded to know what had happened. When we explained where we had found her child she then started to have a go at the staff for not keeping an eye on her child......never did get even a thank you.

Wouldn't stop me doing it again but if it had been me I would have been eternally grateful to two strangers, but hey ho.

Fuzzy_Duck

sagalout1954 wrote: »

So if you lost your child you wouldn't spend a few moments frantically looking for him/her, you'd go straight off to the info desk? "Several entrances near each other" means people WERE coming and going all around you, any one of them could have gone straight to the info desk to report the 'find' on your behalf. DON'T take a child anywhere - however well-meaning your actions may be.

You don't know what you'd do if you lost your child- the panic can stop you doing the most logical thing. Besides, the parent may have already been searching for a while by the time the child is found, and what if the child is a long distance away from where they originally got lost? I think if I was in that situation and the child was unable to tell me where they last saw their parent, I'd have little choice than to take them to the police station. With the best of intentions I don't think anyone can be expected to stand with a lost child for ages on end waiting for the parent to show- you'd do the sensible thing of taking them to the nearest police station where they will be safe and the parent will be likely to go.

As awful as it is to say, parents are a lot more comfortable with their lost child being hand in hand with an elderly woman or a woman with children than they are towards a man on his own. I don't know if Becles is female or male but people can be quite harsh towards men rescuing their kids, which is pretty terrible when you consider how many men are too scared to intervene even though they know they should.

sagalout1954

Good debate to stay still with a lost child, or to walk off with it? I wonder where one might stand if the Mum insists the child wasn't lost, she just turned her back for a second and he/she was gone?

donnaessex

You did the right thing OP. Well done!

Re the looking after a lost child. I have, and would again, walk around with a lost child holding their hand looking for their mum.

I had this exact debate with my husband once who said that he would never go over to a child who looked lost in case of accusations of wrongdoing and I said I would. A week later I had the opportunity - a little girl of 2 or 3 was wandering around the entrance at Asda. I asked her if she'd lost her mum, she nodded and I put my hand out and told her to come find her mum with me. She did and we found her and the mum was very grateful. I know I could have come across a chav mother who screamed at me for touching her child, but I'd rather risk that than risk a little child walk off alone and scared.

bosseyed

True story - I once found a lost child who wanted her mummy, and where were we? In the flipping giant hedge maze at Longleat :rotfl: I did my best like, but we wandered around for ages before finally stumbling upon her mum quite by chance. She was vaguely grateful (the mother not the child), but not nearly enough seeing as I was almost at the middle of the maze when I had to go looking for mum.

WhiteHorse

People should need permission to breed.

Frugalista

Reading all these examples of lost children - it rather begs the question why does no-body use reins anymore? Problem sorted!

Esqui

I think you should offer to give redress as if you'd never intervened. Buy a new coat, run the kid over. I'm not trying to be an idiot here, but if that's what the woman would have preferred...

WhiteHorse

Frugalista wrote: »

... why does no-body use reins anymore? Problem sorted!

Because the chavs keep them strapped in their pushchairs until they are twelve.

POPPYOSCAR

WhiteHorse wrote: »

Because the chavs keep them strapped in their pushchairs until they are twelve.

If only they would!!!!!

Some of them have kids of their own by that age, or not much older!