Oops! Parents Forget Toddler

Oops! Parents Forget Toddler

Sunday, May 4, 2008

filed under: travel

A 23-month-old gets left behind in an airport. Could this happen to you?

The next time you go on a plane trip, don't forget your kid in the airport. Because that's exactly what one family in Canada accidentally did. That can't be good.

How could a Mom forget her 23-month-old kid, you ask? It's actually a lot easier than you'd think. The family was rushing to catch a connecting flight, and got separated. The father thought his wife and her parents had his son. His wife thought her husband had him. Because they weren't sitting together, the family didn't realize that the son was missing once they got on board. And because he was a lap child and wasn't issued a boarding pass, the flight crew didn't notice either.

A security guard found the toddler wandering alone between a security checkpoint and the flight gates, and the family was notified mid-flight that they'd left their son behind. (Can you even IMAGINE the horror?) The father then flew 1,400 miles back to pick him up, while a non-English-speaking Air Canada agent kept the tot occupied.

We'd probably have a heart attack if this happened to us. Have you ever accidentally left your kid somewhere?

filed under: travel

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One time I thought my husband had my daughter in the grocery store and he thought I had her. We found her next to the stuffed animals in the floral section. She was 2. I seriously almost died. Makes me want to get a leash for my kid.

- April

Posted 05/14/08 01:38 PM

I don’t know how someone could leave THEIR CHILD. Ridiculous!

- katie

Posted 05/14/08 03:16 PM

Sounds like Home Alone!! I can’t even imagine. How traumatic for everyone invoved. So glad the child was safe.

- ashley

Posted 05/15/08 07:32 AM

Sounds like a lack of communication caused the problem. Never assume anything; always ask.

- Anonymus

Posted 05/15/08 12:50 PM

I have never lost a child yet(thankfully). But my husband left one at church one Sunday when I was sick. I work with children and at almost every event I do that involves large numbers of children we will usually have 1 to 3 children whose parents are late or just plain forget to pick them up. I took a large group of 5th graders out for a day camp one time and at the end of the day no one was there for one of the children. I could not reach anyone at any of the five phone numbers we had for them either..so I had to make a choice of child services or taking the child home with me until we could reach the parents. The poor girl was already pretty upset so I just took her home with me. We did not hear from her parents until late the next night. Apparently mom was out shopping and decided to stay over at a friends because dad was supposed to pick up their daughter… But dad had called and left a message on moms cell and home phone because he was military and got an emergency call to come to the base. The funny thing is they were both mad at me for taking the child home without their permission. I just told them that it was either me or juvenile court and that I thought their daughter had been through enough. Now I always put on my permission slips that I require parents to sign that “any unclaimed children will be added to my collection”

- momof9

Posted 05/16/08 01:02 PM

omg i would just die if i left my son… :( that’s horrifying

- jaysmama

Posted 05/24/08 11:45 AM

I would die too. Honestly I don’t think there’s any excuse whatsoever for leaving your child somewhere. Whenever my husband and I are out anywhere, and one of us isn’t sure for a second where our son is, we always ask the question, “where is he?”, “do you have him?” “is he there next to you?” etc. We never just think “oh i’m sure he’s with my husband/wife, so i won’t worry about it…” Duh. You can’t ever make that sort of assumption ever when it comes to a child!!!

- concerned

Posted 07/23/08 09:15 AM