Have You Forgotten Your Child Like The Camerons?

This post is triggered by the news this week that the Cameron's left their 8 year old daughter, Nancy, in a pub. They both thought the other had her in their car as they were travelling in 2 cars - I'm not quite sure why they can't travel in one car but maybe there were too many of them. Nancy's absence was discovered when they returned to Chequers, 15 minutes later. I would have thought that even if the parents hadn't realised they were one child down, then the bodyguards with them should have. Just even a quick head count when going back in the cars would be good practice.

As parents we have never left one of our children (or anyone else's) anywhere where we shouldn't have.

I remember when I was working at Great Ormond Street I heard a story from a nurse. She had just had a baby and was house hunting. She went in the house and left her sleeping baby by the front door. After looking round the house she looked in the garden and left through the side gate. Whilst driving away from the house she realised that she had left her baby in the house! 

When my 3 children were young I was paranoid in case they were lost. I remember losing one of them for a minute,but it seemed like forever, in a shop and then finding him playing under a clothes rail. The relief that I found him was paralleled with anger that he wandered away from me. Another time we thought we had lost one at the airport, but it turned out he was with his Uncle.

Have you ever left your child somewhere unintentionally? Or have you lost your child?

Photo by Flickr

Comments

[Cathie]

The longest five minutes of my life was when our daughter Emma then aged just five, went missing in Disney World in Florida.Such a vast and busy place. We were going into a restaurant and she somehow got separated from us in the crowd. For some strange reason my husband had a strong instinct as to where she was and headed back and got her almost immediately. He told me to stay where I was and returned with her in his arms. I will never forget seeing the flash of her red gingham top in the distance as they came towards me. I was always so careful so I was really shocked that this had happened.I do really believe it could happen to anyone.