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A Parent's Worst Nightmare...

Thursday 16 April 2015


On Tuesday afternoon, at a busy adventure playground in Leeds, Lily went missing.


Granted it was only for 5 minutes but I cant explain the feeling I felt when one minute she was there and the next she wasn't. One thousand scenarios ran through my mind and I felt sick to the stomach. Those 5 minutes went in slow motion for me, it seriously felt like 5 hours without her.. I've had a nightmare about it every night since Tuesday.

Basically what had happened was that I had taken my eye off the ball for all of about sixty seconds and had been chatting to my friend when I looked up and realised that I couldn't see Lily. My friend's little girl who had been playing with Lily couldn't see her either and after a few minutes of frantically running around the playground shouting her name and hysterically asking every parent in sight if they'd seen my little girl, I was eventually told that a man had seen her in her own on the playground and taken her off to the missing children's hut.

I appreciate that this bloke thought he was doing the right thing, Lily looks a lot younger than she is due to her height and so my bet is he'd seen a tiny little girl seemingly on her own and marched her straight off to where the missing children go. I also bet however that he didn't spent very long looking for me before taking her off (if he even did at all) nor do I imagine he'd asked Lily where mummy was because she knew exactly her way back to the bench we were sat at. I'm in no way blaming him, he did the right thing I just think he may have been a little hasty in doing so.

Either way it's been a TOTAL eye opener to me not to take my eye off Lily in a public place for even a second. 60 seconds is clearly all it takes for your child to be taken away from under your nose and Lily has a habit of running off super fast at the moment which she thinks is hilarious. It's so so scary and her innocent little mind obviously doesn't comprehend all the dangerous stuff that can happen. I seriously never want to experience again that feeling I felt when I realised she was missing and the guilt I've been feeling ever since.

I'm never ever going to let my sweet beautiful little girl out of my sight again!!

6 comments :

  1. Oh gosh! How terrifying for you.....That man was in the wrong! I would have been livid!
    So glad she was ok x

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    1. I really could've understood a bit more if she'd wandered off somewhere and been found out of the play area but she hadnt! You'd think he'd have hung around and looked for the parent a bit more before whisking her off and giving me a heart attack! Thanks hun x

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  2. So sorry you had to go through this, it's my worst nightmare. Although that man was doing the 'right thing' you would of though he would looked around or spoke to some parents first. We al take our eye of the ball sometimes, it's scary how quickly things can happen!
    Becky from littleoandme.co.uk
    Xx

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    1. Yeah exactly..it all happened right under my nose so he can't have looked very hard at all. I'm just glad it was him, a good person, and not a different kind of man though :| it really is scary how easily these things can happen xx

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  3. My heart was in my throat just reading this! Well done for keeping your head! So nice to hear about good people in the world. I was having a conversation recently with some guys who said they wouldn't feel comfortable dealing with a lost child due to the perception of a guy talking to or leading of a child! Seriously half way through writing this I had to stop my son from pulling down a huge pot plant, they're like lightning :)

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    1. That's really sad that some men feel like they wouldn't be able to help in a missing child situation, although kind of understandable too. I'm just so thankful it was a decent person who found her and not someone else :| They are so fast kids aren't they! We oldies cant keep up ;) xx

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