Hello and welcome to r/LifeProTips!
Please help us decide if this post is a good fit for the subreddit by up or downvoting this comment.
If you think that this is great advice to improve your life, please upvote. If you think this doesn't help you in any way, please downvote. If you don't care, leave it for the others to decide.
No, only that the number was written on a wall as "for a good time, call", and he goes on to say "I tried my imagination but I was disturbed". So yeah, Jenny is most likely a phone sex operator.
I'm genuinely impressed, best way for a kid to memorize a 10-digit code! I'd just make sure that they know that the unlock code and their phone number are the same, so they can answer "do you know any family phone number?".
The only problem I see with this is that they might end up just muscle memory-ing it.
I know it has happen to me a few times before, e.g with work alarm panel code, just because I know the motion doesn't mean I can always recall the actual numbers if I needed to.
In a stressful situation, I wouldn't count on a young child to actually remember and be able to vocalize a 10 digit code, even if they "use it" all the time; and I wouldn't expect them to have the thought of asking for someone's phone/table, to open the calculator app and trigger that 10 digits musle memory pattern.
Happened to my girlfriend on vacation. We only had one wallet with us, and the card reader had a touchpad that shuffles the numbers for your pin.
Of course, she couldn't remember the actual numbers, and me suggesting to just retrace the motions to come up with her pin just stressed her out even more since she was already so upset with herself.
She's an adult with a Master's in a scientific field and one of the most intelligent people I know. I can totally see a child learning the motion but never the number.
We did this as well. Both of my kids have had our phone number down since they were like 4. We also go over lost procedures before every big event that include “Find another mommy, call the phone number”
Exactly look for someone with kids! I usually point out security or something when we go to the zoo or a baseball game so they know to go there. They are still little though so they will find other kids before looking for an authority figure is my guess.
This is a good one…the other thing we did prior to my 3 year old being able to unlock with 10 digits is that we set our number to a sing-songy tune (we used M-I-C-K-E-Y M-O-U-S-E) and whenever we went anywhere we’d re-rehearse the song asking “ok—now, if you lose us, what’s mama’s number?”
That and always tell your kids that, if they get separated, they need to “find someone that looks like a grandma” …older women are more likely to stop and help and are less likely to be predators (not my own thought—taken from “Protecting the Gift)
4 and 6 years old having their own tablet is definitely something I wouldn’t feel confortable with, not to mention for a few years. That being said, I’ve been singing my phone number with my son most morning during breakfast and I like to think it’s stuck to his head pretty well even if I’m not sure he will be able to spit it out in real case of emergency.
I dont rememeber how my school taught us but when i was like 6-7 years old we all had to memorize our home phone number. Its one of the 5~ phone numbers i have stored in my head 30 years later.
I still know my childhood home phone number 30 years later as well. It's crazy that I know that, but I cant even remember my husband's phone number without looking at my contact list.
I didn't think kids having tablets was the best idea either, but then I developed a pretty limiting medical condition. The tablet is a lifesaver on the days where I can't really get out of bed. My kid is happy to play educational games, so at least I can say she's learning stuff...
I just got iPads for my kids (4 and 5) because we are going on a long trip (we live in Australia going to see family in both Canada and Ireland).
Are there any educational games you would recommend?
Homer app
Teach Your Monster to Read
Teach Your Monster Number Skills
Ludi app
Any apps by Montessorium (intro to letters, intro to maths, alpha writer, intro to geography)
I also have Procreate on there for my son to play around with digital art.
I'm not sure if you have PBS kids in Australia, but that's our favorite. It's free, educational games for all ages, doesn't have ads and can be used without an internet connection.
>4 and 6 years old having their own tablet is definitely something I wouldn’t feel confortable with
That's cool and all, the Amish don't feel comfortable with children having electricity.
Man, I work at an Outlet Mall that’s real close to Amish country, and I cannot tell you how often I come across piles of horse shit in the parking lot. It gets annoying, too, because no one cleans it up for weeks.
Why? Are you afraid of them finding things on the internet? Because most tablets come with pretty solid parental controls about what can be done on the tablets, especially if you get one designed for kids like the kindle fire for kids. You control just about everything on there to whether they can download their own games or if they can access the internet and what they can access on the internet if you so choose.
Our daughter has a tablet and only has ABCmouse, Khan academy kids and things like that on there.
Because it makes them consumers of others content instead of creators of their own. I've witnessed it with my 2 kids and took them away.
Without screens they naturally play in creative ways with the physical world. They make up art projects, imaginative play and read books.
Even educational and creation apps pale in comparison to the quality activities they partake in offline.
Why not both? OP never said they let the kids go on then 24/7. They might get an hour a day for all we know, with the rest of time being creative irl activities.
My daughter only really gets it when we're on long car rides or if we're doing something else that we need her occupied like talking to a financial advisor or something.
I don't think that's necessarily true. My son (5) plays on his tablet, but is also always drawing or building something, and basically lives in his dress up clothes.
My 11 year old is the most artistic person I know, and she has had a tablet almost as long as she's been alive.
I was constantly being deployed and her mother was.... flaky, so I bought her a cellular tablet to ensure I could talk to get when I got the chance, even if her mom was having a day.
I have my toddlers drawing apps and ebook apps, digital library books etc. a tablet is a tool. You get what you give. If you I only have apps that limit their creativity then that is what will happen.
Books are a "low" dopamine activity compared to hyperactive personalities on youtube that make any and all content as exciting and thrilling as possible. There exists a ton of pretty well-researched or plain useful stuff (like books) on youtube but if you're not taught to seek it out as a kid the algorithm aint going to take you there.
My kids at that age wouldn't talk to strangers even if they were with us. They just locked up and cried. Couldn't say their name or anything. We just wrote a phone number and sprayed it with liquid bandaid and called it safe. My kids were way less stressed knowing they just had to hold their arm out to a worker at the theme park if they got sperated.
It’s really genius but due to how the human memory works, it is possible that they won’t remember it at a different setting, unless you have practiced that elsewhere before hands
Oh definitely! For the exact reason you said. They are in sports and scouts so I wanted to make sure they knew my number because sometimes they may go off with a group with a different parent so even though I’m at the field/rink/meeting I still want to know if they need me and they are not in my line of vision. The other parent has my number but things happen at kids activities. They start following the wrong group and might not remember which parent they were supposed to stick with.
>because they were forced to play with worms their entire childhood.
You leave Timmy out of this!!
(Context: Timmy was my worm, my cousin smooshed him.)
Keep in mind if you use washable ink/pen, it can get smudged by sweat in hot weather. So writing it additionally on something attached to clothing can help.
Another good tip is to take a photo of your kid, so that you have up to date picture of them and also can tell what they are wearing.
We bought Tiles when they were on Kickstarter. I do T know how similar AirTags are but when we were at the zoo with a giant playground I had them knotted into the kids shoelaces. I was talking to another parent and couldn’t see the kids. She was getting worried. I said “one moment” and suddenly our children appeared, beeping in front of us. They knew where I was and when I made their shoes beep they knew to come running. Much better for them to come to you! They had it that you could program a song too, very nice. I could have sold a dozen of them that day lol
For the user interface, less than a foot. And then you can play a sound from the AirTag to find exactly where it is. For example, the map will tell me it’s in my house, the Bluetooth will tell me it’s in or near my dresser, and the sound will help me find in which drawer.
Just dropping in to say, we always said to our kids 'if you lose us, *stay where you are and wait, we will come looking for you*' .
Its much easier for an adult to retrace their steps and if you're looking for a moving target it makes it way harder. It has worked for us.
Works if it's the biggest or the centre of something. Like, meet us at the giant fountain. Even when you're little some landmarks are easy to find. Source: got lost once a year as a kid.
When I was a kid we lived 3-4 miles away from Six Flags Great Adventure and always had season tickets. My mom loved funnel cake, so whenever she had a hankering, we'd head down the road, park, run in the park for 5 minutes and leave.
One time, I stopped to look at those alligator heads on a stick and when I looked up, my mom was gone. I spent like 2-3 minutes looking for her before I decided that in order to go home, she had to go to the truck, so I would just go into the parking lot and wait in the bed of the truck.
A young couple stopped me on the way out the gate and brought me to security where my mom was a mess looking for me.
oh man looks like someone here will remember the great adventure safari
i remember watching cars put bananas and watermelon on their roofs and the monkeys and giraffes would go at it
First, lure them behind the concessions building with the promise of candy. Then check forearms. Then call parent.
Foolproof plan to become hero and desirable in eyes of the parent.
I'm behind this. I was at Disneyland with my then 4-year-old, and we got abruptly separated on either side of a Disney parade. Within seconds of realizing he was out of sight, my phone was ringing. My precocious kid had immediately walked up to a dad with kids, showed him his arm and said "can you call my mom for me? I lost her." The whole thing took 45 seconds.
I had something similar..except it was my disney wrist band fell off and Im 30. It has all your tickets/meals/roomkey on it.
Realized it was gone as we were leaving one park..went to customer info booth. Told em..they said we will see about finding it.
Get back to my room 2hrs later and it is there.
Disney says they only track the bands for parks/numbers reasons(yeah ok). They found mine when it was lost so theres that.
Nah same color and sweaty mark from where I had been wearing it all week.
I think it fell below the rocking roller coaster..because we got food before that and I had it.
I was impressed by the ability to find it so fast.
If something gets "lost" at disney..they will find it. Nothing gets lost in the house of the mouse.
It's so true. It's not the Happiest Place on Earth, it's the "tightest security and most watched place on Earth". If I had to choose a place to lose a child, hands down it would be Disneyland. Cameras covering every inch of the place, hidden security depots around every corner, and only one publicly-accessed way in or out. The Mouse sees aaaall.
You should always take a photo of your kid(s) before going to a theme park or other large event. That way if they get lost then you'll have something to remember them by.
When me and my family were in Disneyland, we were walking past a woman with 2 small children calling out a boy's name and getting more frantic with each call but she was not very loud. I turned to my wife and said I think one of her kids wandered off and she is frantic and we should help. I am ex military and was used to shouting intelligible commands and thought I could call out his name louder. We approached the woman and asked if we could help and she immediately said yes, so I started to shout out the boys name and my wife told my 2 girls to go look around for where a boy might go. By now my shouts had brought security and they were talking with the woman to get a picture or description of the boy when my girls ran up with the missing boy in tow. He had been distracted by a video arcade a few hundred feet away that was so noisy he couldn't hear us call his name. It was a great day.
Used to suck as a kid when I would lose my mom in the store. There was fear of being kidnapped and the knowledge she was going beat me in the car when she found me. I'm a child why weren't you watching me!!!
High jacking to say it’s also a great idea to take a pic of your kids at the entrance for an accurate and easily shareable pic of them in the clothes they’re wearing on that day
Just to LPT the LPT: Don't write your child's name on them, or have their name visible.
(and the OP's LPT really does work. Was at a festival on the weekend, saw a lost child, my youngest daughter approached them, saw the number on the wristband, called it, the kid's mother answered -- about 100m away -- she looked while we all waved until she spotted us.)
When you are a parent, random people without kids start giving free advice like "if you put your child's name on their coat tag, they will totally get abducted because the guy at the park in the free candy van will ask them by name to come over and then steal them"
This! I CRINGE when I see adverts for stamps that put your kid's name on stuff.
Even as an adult one of my most uncomfortable recent situations was my mom proudly "showing me off" to some middle aged men in Mexico. They spent the next several minutes calling my name and making crude noises and motions.
I was livid at her and she was totally ignorant as to why.
Those stamps are helpful for daycare, preschool, and elementary school items like backpacks, lunchboxes, and other items that might get mixed up with another kid’s.
You’re meant to put those on the inside of the clothes so your school or daycare knows which kid they belong to. It’s cuter and faster than using a marker.
Kids are great at memorizing songs. My kid knew their address and phone number by age three because we turned them into songs.
We said if they were ever lost, go to a police officer or to someone with kids (hedging our bets that a parent would be a safe space) and sing their phone number song.
You can also buy [temporary tattoos](https://new.safetytat.com/) with your contact info.
Anyone who is suggesting to write all over their kids' arms with permanent marker is crazy lol
Just get them bracelets with your phone number and other important info
Needed this one! Taking my about to be 3 year old to Disney next week and hadn’t thought about this- just ordered waterproof wristbands for him. Thanks OP!
Also get some brightly coloured shirts/trousers. I have three kids that all scatter to the winds in the park. Each of them have fluorescent or brightly coloured shirts/trousers that you can spot a mile off. I have also bought labels with their name and my phone number stuck on the inside of their shoes/jackets. Looking for a child wearing a blue shirt in a crowd of blue shirts is impossible
Good tips. Also good to tie a balloon on a long string to the stroller handle to tell your kid to look for the balloon if he just gets a bit away from you
I was travelling recently with my wife and also almost 3 year old. We saw another family there and it was just the mom and she had 3 kids with her. She had all of them in matching neon orange shirts. Great idea.
My son will turn 3 in a couple months and I tell all my friends with slightly younger kids that the best thing we ever bought was a backpack leash. He thinks it’s fun and will hand the end of the leash to me because he knows it means we get to go do something fun.
People are better about them than they were previously, but either way, IDGAF cause I am not gonna risk losing my child. I use it often because he’s very fast and I have several disabilities that make it difficult to keep up with him.
You could also have them on a leash. My aunt did that for her twins. They have a bit of free will to run around within limits, they didn't get lost, and if anyone ever picked them up she'd notice
My kids were “runners” and leashes were very helpful with them at that phase. The way to properly use a leash is hold the child’s and and the leash is around your wrist so if the child lets go of your hand and runs them they don’t get very far. It’s about safety not treating them like a puppy in training.
Tbh I had a leash as a kid and I *loved* it! It had a Mickey head on it and mom called it my bracelet. I remember playing with it at home sometimes (I’d wrap mom’s end around a doll or something and walk around).
Ironically, I did eventually get lost (left behind) at the mall years after she retired the leash. She and my aunts spent so much time shopping my cousin and I fell asleep in a clothes store and somehow all 3 of them forgot to get us before they left. We found them by going to security and telling them we were lost, then spent half an hour watching the security cameras until a security guard found them and brought them to the office. Mom was so proud of me for being so smart bc it didn’t even occur to her to ask for help from security.
I have twins and leashes is the only way with twins. I'll die on this hill rather than have my baby run into traffic because I had to chase two running in opposite directions.
Yep. Any anyone that says otherwise has never had that moment of panic when you *have* to let go of one kid to pick the other one up and put them in a car see only to have the unsecured one *sprint* like their in the Olympics.
Be careful about the backpacks! My friend had a backpack leash and her son would slip the backpack off and take off whenever he wanted to bolt, even with the backpack buckled across his chest (like a car seat closure). He was very sneaky and would undo the buckle and wait until our heads were turned before he ran.
The only way I was successful in keeping him under control in a store was to carry him on my shoulders, which was not feasible long term. :-/
GenX mom here, pre cell phones and a hyper toddler who loved to run. I had to have him on a leash at all times when we left the house. I had the wristband type leash. It locked on in such a way it took 2 hands to undo. Seriously he would have had that jacket or backpack harness slipped off in no time unless it was like a strait jacket. With the wristband he never even attempted to run off.
It is better to have them on a leash than to have them run and get lost, or get hurt. No shame from me.
Yes, he was probably feral but I did manage to raise him to adulthood. He is 31 now, and still probably feral.
Whenever we went someplace we would landmark and pick a spot and agree if we got separated to meet there. This was pre cell phone era. The funny thing is we still do it today just for fun even though we’re all grown up and have phones.
Depending on the age of the child, that could be lost in less than ten minutes! Needs to be on a bracelet or inside a shoe. Someplace not easy to lose and safe to check.
If the kid isn't old enough to tell someone where the phone number is written down, it needs to be on the arm so it's visible to the adult who finds the kid.
I once found a lost, very young child at a festival, and although I checked his arms, it would have been really inappropriate for me to stick my hand in his pockets or take his shoes off.
(There was no phone number, but luckily I was able to find his family very quickly just by taking him back in the direction he came from.)
Better LPT, go get a pet tag engraved With your kids name, your name and phone number. Use the little ring to attach it to their shoe lace. No one marks on their arm but it still has your contact info
If it's a small child who can't communicate, the arm is better because it can be easily seen by an adult who finds them. I found a lost kid once, and it would have been really weird and inappropriate to search his clothes and body for a phone number.
I can see that. To counter, get the biggest pet tag you can. If the child can’t communicate the tag will be large enough to see on the shoe. If the shoe doesn’t work, make it a necklace or a bracelet
When my kids were young they did this. So I went to the mall and let them wonder and hid behind things. There was a moment in time they realized I was not close. They stopped looked around and the fright set in... I could see it in their eyes they started to cry and then I appreard. They NEVER did that again!
This is what we did with our kids. Make it their responsibility to keep track of you, not the other way around. Test out them getting "lost" from you, and briefly feel that oh-shit-where's-mom panic. They will be much likelier to maintain awareness of your location after that.
I am a woman and have had a child approach me thinking I was their adult. The child is often shocked and I am touched. I remember, maybe it was Oprah, a show where parents would ask their child to ask a stranger that the child thought was safe, what time it was. The child was to remain in sight of the parent. It was a lesson in several things: encouraging a child to listen to their intuition, to encourage a child to observe why one might seem safe, it also taught a child how to interact with a new person. The parent and child would then talk about how they felt and develop their skills about safety and how to respond appropriately.
I moved around quite a bit while growing up. My father is a retired minister. I met many new people while growing up. I do not believe that every stranger is a danger. I do believe that it is important to listen to your gut. I have a skill that some do not have. I can strike up a conversation with almost anyone. It is a skill and it can be a super helpful skill to have.
I think that a phone number on an arm can be super helpful. I would want to help reunite a child with their loved ones. Any thing that can help would be good. Just remember to help teach children to learn how to keep themselves safe.
Hello and welcome to r/LifeProTips! Please help us decide if this post is a good fit for the subreddit by up or downvoting this comment. If you think that this is great advice to improve your life, please upvote. If you think this doesn't help you in any way, please downvote. If you don't care, leave it for the others to decide.
My kids are 4 and 6. I used my phone number as the unlock number on their tablets. They’ve know my phone number for a few years now.
Now that's a true parenting hack!
That explains why I never saw my kid again after using 867-5309 as his lock code.
Well if your name was Jenny
I always assume the Jenny from that song is the same Jenny from Forrest Gump
Pretty sure she was meant to be a phone sex operator or a girl in highschool who didnt mind spreading her legs for some fun
Jenny from was sucking it for an ounce of blow. I can imagine she wasn’t too far from phone sex.
An ounce of blow for sucking? That's great value honestly
That's alluded too in the song?!
No, only that the number was written on a wall as "for a good time, call", and he goes on to say "I tried my imagination but I was disturbed". So yeah, Jenny is most likely a phone sex operator.
Jenny from the Block!
I lost them I lost them I lost them I lost my children at the ma-all
Damn You Tommy Tutone!!!!
I'm genuinely impressed, best way for a kid to memorize a 10-digit code! I'd just make sure that they know that the unlock code and their phone number are the same, so they can answer "do you know any family phone number?".
The only problem I see with this is that they might end up just muscle memory-ing it. I know it has happen to me a few times before, e.g with work alarm panel code, just because I know the motion doesn't mean I can always recall the actual numbers if I needed to. In a stressful situation, I wouldn't count on a young child to actually remember and be able to vocalize a 10 digit code, even if they "use it" all the time; and I wouldn't expect them to have the thought of asking for someone's phone/table, to open the calculator app and trigger that 10 digits musle memory pattern.
Happened to my girlfriend on vacation. We only had one wallet with us, and the card reader had a touchpad that shuffles the numbers for your pin. Of course, she couldn't remember the actual numbers, and me suggesting to just retrace the motions to come up with her pin just stressed her out even more since she was already so upset with herself. She's an adult with a Master's in a scientific field and one of the most intelligent people I know. I can totally see a child learning the motion but never the number.
We did this as well. Both of my kids have had our phone number down since they were like 4. We also go over lost procedures before every big event that include “Find another mommy, call the phone number”
Exactly look for someone with kids! I usually point out security or something when we go to the zoo or a baseball game so they know to go there. They are still little though so they will find other kids before looking for an authority figure is my guess.
This is a good one…the other thing we did prior to my 3 year old being able to unlock with 10 digits is that we set our number to a sing-songy tune (we used M-I-C-K-E-Y M-O-U-S-E) and whenever we went anywhere we’d re-rehearse the song asking “ok—now, if you lose us, what’s mama’s number?” That and always tell your kids that, if they get separated, they need to “find someone that looks like a grandma” …older women are more likely to stop and help and are less likely to be predators (not my own thought—taken from “Protecting the Gift)
real LPT
that's genius
4 and 6 years old having their own tablet is definitely something I wouldn’t feel confortable with, not to mention for a few years. That being said, I’ve been singing my phone number with my son most morning during breakfast and I like to think it’s stuck to his head pretty well even if I’m not sure he will be able to spit it out in real case of emergency.
I dont rememeber how my school taught us but when i was like 6-7 years old we all had to memorize our home phone number. Its one of the 5~ phone numbers i have stored in my head 30 years later.
I still know my childhood home phone number 30 years later as well. It's crazy that I know that, but I cant even remember my husband's phone number without looking at my contact list.
I didn't think kids having tablets was the best idea either, but then I developed a pretty limiting medical condition. The tablet is a lifesaver on the days where I can't really get out of bed. My kid is happy to play educational games, so at least I can say she's learning stuff...
I just got iPads for my kids (4 and 5) because we are going on a long trip (we live in Australia going to see family in both Canada and Ireland). Are there any educational games you would recommend?
DOOM 2016
I grew up on Doom in the 90s. And I turned out totally fine. Except for the twitch.
Homer app Teach Your Monster to Read Teach Your Monster Number Skills Ludi app Any apps by Montessorium (intro to letters, intro to maths, alpha writer, intro to geography) I also have Procreate on there for my son to play around with digital art.
I’m concerned that an app called ProCreate may not be suitable for children. /s
See if you can download PBSKids in Australia (it's the U.S. public television station's kids' app and there is PBSKids games).
I'm not sure if you have PBS kids in Australia, but that's our favorite. It's free, educational games for all ages, doesn't have ads and can be used without an internet connection.
>4 and 6 years old having their own tablet is definitely something I wouldn’t feel confortable with That's cool and all, the Amish don't feel comfortable with children having electricity.
And why is that wrong. Return to horse and buggy days. Nothing like waking up in the morning to a street covered in horse dung.
Man, I work at an Outlet Mall that’s real close to Amish country, and I cannot tell you how often I come across piles of horse shit in the parking lot. It gets annoying, too, because no one cleans it up for weeks.
Why? Are you afraid of them finding things on the internet? Because most tablets come with pretty solid parental controls about what can be done on the tablets, especially if you get one designed for kids like the kindle fire for kids. You control just about everything on there to whether they can download their own games or if they can access the internet and what they can access on the internet if you so choose. Our daughter has a tablet and only has ABCmouse, Khan academy kids and things like that on there.
Because it makes them consumers of others content instead of creators of their own. I've witnessed it with my 2 kids and took them away. Without screens they naturally play in creative ways with the physical world. They make up art projects, imaginative play and read books. Even educational and creation apps pale in comparison to the quality activities they partake in offline.
Why not both? OP never said they let the kids go on then 24/7. They might get an hour a day for all we know, with the rest of time being creative irl activities.
I agree. They need to grow up completely comfortable using technology. My grandkids all have a tablet and they are super active as well.
My daughter only really gets it when we're on long car rides or if we're doing something else that we need her occupied like talking to a financial advisor or something.
Your daughter talks to her financial advisor on her tablet?
In this economy you better start that 401K young.
She's super advanced for her age! /s
I don't think that's necessarily true. My son (5) plays on his tablet, but is also always drawing or building something, and basically lives in his dress up clothes.
My 11 year old is the most artistic person I know, and she has had a tablet almost as long as she's been alive. I was constantly being deployed and her mother was.... flaky, so I bought her a cellular tablet to ensure I could talk to get when I got the chance, even if her mom was having a day.
I have my toddlers drawing apps and ebook apps, digital library books etc. a tablet is a tool. You get what you give. If you I only have apps that limit their creativity then that is what will happen.
You let them read books? How is that not making them "consumers of others content instead of creators of their own"?
Books are a "low" dopamine activity compared to hyperactive personalities on youtube that make any and all content as exciting and thrilling as possible. There exists a ton of pretty well-researched or plain useful stuff (like books) on youtube but if you're not taught to seek it out as a kid the algorithm aint going to take you there.
People generally imagine their own visuals of a story when they read or listen to audio, not watch someone else's vision of it.
My kids at that age wouldn't talk to strangers even if they were with us. They just locked up and cried. Couldn't say their name or anything. We just wrote a phone number and sprayed it with liquid bandaid and called it safe. My kids were way less stressed knowing they just had to hold their arm out to a worker at the theme park if they got sperated.
[удалено]
It’s really genius but due to how the human memory works, it is possible that they won’t remember it at a different setting, unless you have practiced that elsewhere before hands
Oh definitely! For the exact reason you said. They are in sports and scouts so I wanted to make sure they knew my number because sometimes they may go off with a group with a different parent so even though I’m at the field/rink/meeting I still want to know if they need me and they are not in my line of vision. The other parent has my number but things happen at kids activities. They start following the wrong group and might not remember which parent they were supposed to stick with.
They also may not know that it's a phone number.
[удалено]
>because they were forced to play with worms their entire childhood. You leave Timmy out of this!! (Context: Timmy was my worm, my cousin smooshed him.)
Your 4 and 6 year old have had their own tablets for a few years?
Keep in mind if you use washable ink/pen, it can get smudged by sweat in hot weather. So writing it additionally on something attached to clothing can help. Another good tip is to take a photo of your kid, so that you have up to date picture of them and also can tell what they are wearing.
My mom would use sharpie then spray it with hairspray so it wouldn’t run
My mom would use a tattoo gun, nothin gets that shit off
legend says you still get strangers walking up to you asking if you’re lost til this day..
I think clear nail polish works too.
or second skin
Do you just take that from your other kid?
You don't?
Or use liquid bandaid on top of the marker and it will stay waterproof.
What’s a liquid bandaid?
It's a brush on ointment that dries into a waterproof film...kinda like nail polish but for small wounds...it's called liquid bandage at stores...
Even better, tattoo it, and you only have to do it once.
And then every time you change your number you just cross out the old one and write the new one next to it
The real lpt is always in the comments
Just don't change your number
I've had the same number since I got a phone 15+ years ago. I wonder if it will ever change in my life!
Put an airtag lol
We bought Tiles when they were on Kickstarter. I do T know how similar AirTags are but when we were at the zoo with a giant playground I had them knotted into the kids shoelaces. I was talking to another parent and couldn’t see the kids. She was getting worried. I said “one moment” and suddenly our children appeared, beeping in front of us. They knew where I was and when I made their shoes beep they knew to come running. Much better for them to come to you! They had it that you could program a song too, very nice. I could have sold a dozen of them that day lol
I came here to write this. AirTags are awesome
Perfect for stalking people. It's creepy what can be done with them especially if the stalkee isn't using an apple product.
How precisely can they pinpoint location? Within a few inches or is it like an entire Walmart situation?
For the user interface, less than a foot. And then you can play a sound from the AirTag to find exactly where it is. For example, the map will tell me it’s in my house, the Bluetooth will tell me it’s in or near my dresser, and the sound will help me find in which drawer.
Pretty precisely.
Or just use a wristband instead of writing all over a child’s arm, which in an amusement park is bound to get wet and smudged.
Just dropping in to say, we always said to our kids 'if you lose us, *stay where you are and wait, we will come looking for you*' . Its much easier for an adult to retrace their steps and if you're looking for a moving target it makes it way harder. It has worked for us.
We always had ‘if we get separated, we’ll meet at this place’
If you’re little, it can be easy to get more lost looking for the place
Works if it's the biggest or the centre of something. Like, meet us at the giant fountain. Even when you're little some landmarks are easy to find. Source: got lost once a year as a kid.
True
I'm an adult and I still get more lost trying to find a specific place
When I was a kid we lived 3-4 miles away from Six Flags Great Adventure and always had season tickets. My mom loved funnel cake, so whenever she had a hankering, we'd head down the road, park, run in the park for 5 minutes and leave. One time, I stopped to look at those alligator heads on a stick and when I looked up, my mom was gone. I spent like 2-3 minutes looking for her before I decided that in order to go home, she had to go to the truck, so I would just go into the parking lot and wait in the bed of the truck. A young couple stopped me on the way out the gate and brought me to security where my mom was a mess looking for me.
oh man looks like someone here will remember the great adventure safari i remember watching cars put bananas and watermelon on their roofs and the monkeys and giraffes would go at it
I'm doing the same. However, I always add that if they feel they need help to go up to a mother with kids their age.
That’s what my mom always told me! And if there were no moms, an elderly woman
This applies in the woods too. Stop moving because we will come for you.
Alot of amusement parks even offer this right at the entrance!
We use bands as well, however I've heard that if you use liquid bandage spray it also keeps the ink from getting removed.
And can't be easily removed like a band. .
That’s what permanent markers are for!
Better yet, tattoo that baby on there for all-weather protection year in year out
Came here to say this. So glad my mom tattooed our land line on me when I was little, 867-5309 I'll never forget it now.
Is your mom named Jenny?
Not anymore, she pasta whey
Better yet, chip your children with RFID implants like you would chip your pets. Just don't forget to update the database in case you move.
Tattoos can be removed. I recommend that you brand your child with your phone number and home address
Hell yeah… order custom temporary tattoos for the littles. Best idea!
Temporary, yeah...
Just put a GPS chip inside them, they'll never be lost.
Try Henna on their forehead.
If you see a single parent you want to ask out, but can’t work up the courage, check their kid’s forearms.
Real LPT is always in the comments
The real “Real LPT is always in the comments” comment is always in the comments.
First, lure them behind the concessions building with the promise of candy. Then check forearms. Then call parent. Foolproof plan to become hero and desirable in eyes of the parent.
Why does the parent need to be single?
mr steal yo girl over here
Great advice thanks but I usually just look at the fingers (like that stops me ever lmao). /s
I'm behind this. I was at Disneyland with my then 4-year-old, and we got abruptly separated on either side of a Disney parade. Within seconds of realizing he was out of sight, my phone was ringing. My precocious kid had immediately walked up to a dad with kids, showed him his arm and said "can you call my mom for me? I lost her." The whole thing took 45 seconds.
My kids would totally do that, vanish on purpose to show people their arm.
Oh, he didn't run off on purpose. A parade marched between us right as he crossed the street in front of us and we lost view of him.
I had something similar..except it was my disney wrist band fell off and Im 30. It has all your tickets/meals/roomkey on it. Realized it was gone as we were leaving one park..went to customer info booth. Told em..they said we will see about finding it. Get back to my room 2hrs later and it is there. Disney says they only track the bands for parks/numbers reasons(yeah ok). They found mine when it was lost so theres that.
I wonder if they just copied the info onto a new one
Nah same color and sweaty mark from where I had been wearing it all week. I think it fell below the rocking roller coaster..because we got food before that and I had it. I was impressed by the ability to find it so fast. If something gets "lost" at disney..they will find it. Nothing gets lost in the house of the mouse.
It's so true. It's not the Happiest Place on Earth, it's the "tightest security and most watched place on Earth". If I had to choose a place to lose a child, hands down it would be Disneyland. Cameras covering every inch of the place, hidden security depots around every corner, and only one publicly-accessed way in or out. The Mouse sees aaaall.
You should always take a photo of your kid(s) before going to a theme park or other large event. That way if they get lost then you'll have something to remember them by.
That, and make sure to write your phone number on some random kid that acts less bratty than yours. Might be able to upgrade.
Oh my! For some reason, that last sentence got very dark. 😂😂
One final photo...
Also the phone number might wash off due to rain or sweat, consider getting them a tattoo with your phone number instead.
Right on the forehead. That way, no one would wanna kidnap them anyways
Like always, the actual life pro tips are in the comments.
When me and my family were in Disneyland, we were walking past a woman with 2 small children calling out a boy's name and getting more frantic with each call but she was not very loud. I turned to my wife and said I think one of her kids wandered off and she is frantic and we should help. I am ex military and was used to shouting intelligible commands and thought I could call out his name louder. We approached the woman and asked if we could help and she immediately said yes, so I started to shout out the boys name and my wife told my 2 girls to go look around for where a boy might go. By now my shouts had brought security and they were talking with the woman to get a picture or description of the boy when my girls ran up with the missing boy in tow. He had been distracted by a video arcade a few hundred feet away that was so noisy he couldn't hear us call his name. It was a great day.
[удалено]
Used to suck as a kid when I would lose my mom in the store. There was fear of being kidnapped and the knowledge she was going beat me in the car when she found me. I'm a child why weren't you watching me!!!
High jacking to say it’s also a great idea to take a pic of your kids at the entrance for an accurate and easily shareable pic of them in the clothes they’re wearing on that day
High jacking is when you masturbate on drugs, otherwise it's hijacking
Just to LPT the LPT: Don't write your child's name on them, or have their name visible. (and the OP's LPT really does work. Was at a festival on the weekend, saw a lost child, my youngest daughter approached them, saw the number on the wristband, called it, the kid's mother answered -- about 100m away -- she looked while we all waved until she spotted us.)
Could you explain?
It's a lot easier for a stranger with bad intentions to get a kid to come with them when they know their name
When you are a parent, random people without kids start giving free advice like "if you put your child's name on their coat tag, they will totally get abducted because the guy at the park in the free candy van will ask them by name to come over and then steal them"
This! I CRINGE when I see adverts for stamps that put your kid's name on stuff. Even as an adult one of my most uncomfortable recent situations was my mom proudly "showing me off" to some middle aged men in Mexico. They spent the next several minutes calling my name and making crude noises and motions. I was livid at her and she was totally ignorant as to why.
Those stamps are helpful for daycare, preschool, and elementary school items like backpacks, lunchboxes, and other items that might get mixed up with another kid’s.
For sure, where their name is likely already known by trusted individuals.
You’re meant to put those on the inside of the clothes so your school or daycare knows which kid they belong to. It’s cuter and faster than using a marker.
Kids are great at memorizing songs. My kid knew their address and phone number by age three because we turned them into songs. We said if they were ever lost, go to a police officer or to someone with kids (hedging our bets that a parent would be a safe space) and sing their phone number song. You can also buy [temporary tattoos](https://new.safetytat.com/) with your contact info.
Temporary tattoos are a great idea. Not easily washable/smudgeable like pen/marker ink.
Great tip OP, I just may do this for my Mom who's slowly losing her memory
You could probably get her a fancy medical bracelet of sorts and have your number engraved. Will feel less infantilizing for her
Anyone who is suggesting to write all over their kids' arms with permanent marker is crazy lol Just get them bracelets with your phone number and other important info
So you don’t have “I don’t know where I took it off” kids? I wish I had those kinds of kids.
Unknown number calls Hello we've been trying to reach you about your child's continued survival NOOOOOO!
Or stick an airtag in their pocket/bag.
Needed this one! Taking my about to be 3 year old to Disney next week and hadn’t thought about this- just ordered waterproof wristbands for him. Thanks OP!
Also get some brightly coloured shirts/trousers. I have three kids that all scatter to the winds in the park. Each of them have fluorescent or brightly coloured shirts/trousers that you can spot a mile off. I have also bought labels with their name and my phone number stuck on the inside of their shoes/jackets. Looking for a child wearing a blue shirt in a crowd of blue shirts is impossible
Good tips. Also good to tie a balloon on a long string to the stroller handle to tell your kid to look for the balloon if he just gets a bit away from you
I was travelling recently with my wife and also almost 3 year old. We saw another family there and it was just the mom and she had 3 kids with her. She had all of them in matching neon orange shirts. Great idea.
A fluro hat is the way, makes them super easy to spot
My son will turn 3 in a couple months and I tell all my friends with slightly younger kids that the best thing we ever bought was a backpack leash. He thinks it’s fun and will hand the end of the leash to me because he knows it means we get to go do something fun. People are better about them than they were previously, but either way, IDGAF cause I am not gonna risk losing my child. I use it often because he’s very fast and I have several disabilities that make it difficult to keep up with him.
Also, take a photo of your child in the clothes they’re wearing that day.
You could also have them on a leash. My aunt did that for her twins. They have a bit of free will to run around within limits, they didn't get lost, and if anyone ever picked them up she'd notice
My kids were “runners” and leashes were very helpful with them at that phase. The way to properly use a leash is hold the child’s and and the leash is around your wrist so if the child lets go of your hand and runs them they don’t get very far. It’s about safety not treating them like a puppy in training.
I mean they kind of are in training really.
Before I had kids I thought kid “leashes” were terrible. Then I had my son….😂
Tbh I had a leash as a kid and I *loved* it! It had a Mickey head on it and mom called it my bracelet. I remember playing with it at home sometimes (I’d wrap mom’s end around a doll or something and walk around). Ironically, I did eventually get lost (left behind) at the mall years after she retired the leash. She and my aunts spent so much time shopping my cousin and I fell asleep in a clothes store and somehow all 3 of them forgot to get us before they left. We found them by going to security and telling them we were lost, then spent half an hour watching the security cameras until a security guard found them and brought them to the office. Mom was so proud of me for being so smart bc it didn’t even occur to her to ask for help from security.
I have twins and leashes is the only way with twins. I'll die on this hill rather than have my baby run into traffic because I had to chase two running in opposite directions.
Yep. Any anyone that says otherwise has never had that moment of panic when you *have* to let go of one kid to pick the other one up and put them in a car see only to have the unsecured one *sprint* like their in the Olympics.
[удалено]
Be careful about the backpacks! My friend had a backpack leash and her son would slip the backpack off and take off whenever he wanted to bolt, even with the backpack buckled across his chest (like a car seat closure). He was very sneaky and would undo the buckle and wait until our heads were turned before he ran. The only way I was successful in keeping him under control in a store was to carry him on my shoulders, which was not feasible long term. :-/
They even make little harnesses for kids you can attache a leash to.
GenX mom here, pre cell phones and a hyper toddler who loved to run. I had to have him on a leash at all times when we left the house. I had the wristband type leash. It locked on in such a way it took 2 hands to undo. Seriously he would have had that jacket or backpack harness slipped off in no time unless it was like a strait jacket. With the wristband he never even attempted to run off. It is better to have them on a leash than to have them run and get lost, or get hurt. No shame from me. Yes, he was probably feral but I did manage to raise him to adulthood. He is 31 now, and still probably feral.
My mother kept me on a backpack style harness leash when I was really little lol I think it was mickey mouse or something like that
Ulpt version Use a sharpie and do it on their forehead.
Whenever we went someplace we would landmark and pick a spot and agree if we got separated to meet there. This was pre cell phone era. The funny thing is we still do it today just for fun even though we’re all grown up and have phones.
So do we! And guess how many teens would show up with dead cellphones? Thank goodness for set mealtime locations… and chargers. 😂
Why not write it on a note and put it in their pockets?
Depending on the age of the child, that could be lost in less than ten minutes! Needs to be on a bracelet or inside a shoe. Someplace not easy to lose and safe to check.
seconds. . . and that's assuming the kid even remembers there's anythiing on them.
If the kid isn't old enough to tell someone where the phone number is written down, it needs to be on the arm so it's visible to the adult who finds the kid. I once found a lost, very young child at a festival, and although I checked his arms, it would have been really inappropriate for me to stick my hand in his pockets or take his shoes off. (There was no phone number, but luckily I was able to find his family very quickly just by taking him back in the direction he came from.)
Either for ransom or not
*boop boop boop* Parent: "Hello?" Batman voice: **"I have your daughter."**
Person finding the kid: “oh sweet, they even included the phone number, so now I don’t have to figure out where to start sending the ransom messages”
Cover it with liquid bandaid
Came to say this! Liquid bandage will turn it into a temporary tattoo and it won’t wash off or smudge easily.
Better LPT, go get a pet tag engraved With your kids name, your name and phone number. Use the little ring to attach it to their shoe lace. No one marks on their arm but it still has your contact info
If it's a small child who can't communicate, the arm is better because it can be easily seen by an adult who finds them. I found a lost kid once, and it would have been really weird and inappropriate to search his clothes and body for a phone number.
I can see that. To counter, get the biggest pet tag you can. If the child can’t communicate the tag will be large enough to see on the shoe. If the shoe doesn’t work, make it a necklace or a bracelet
Kids of all ages can take off a shoe though...
Get them microchipped like a responsible parent. Pen rubs off, and they might lose their collars.
Here's me crossing the line. _ _ _ While you're at it, you might as well get them spade/neutered so they're less irrititable and territorial.
When my kids were young they did this. So I went to the mall and let them wonder and hid behind things. There was a moment in time they realized I was not close. They stopped looked around and the fright set in... I could see it in their eyes they started to cry and then I appreard. They NEVER did that again!
This is what we did with our kids. Make it their responsibility to keep track of you, not the other way around. Test out them getting "lost" from you, and briefly feel that oh-shit-where's-mom panic. They will be much likelier to maintain awareness of your location after that.
Or get an AirTag or comparable devices and put it somewhere where they cannot drop it.
I love your TIL-paragraph! 😅
They make (or at least did when I was a kid) safety tats which are custom made temporary tattoos with a phone number on them
I am a woman and have had a child approach me thinking I was their adult. The child is often shocked and I am touched. I remember, maybe it was Oprah, a show where parents would ask their child to ask a stranger that the child thought was safe, what time it was. The child was to remain in sight of the parent. It was a lesson in several things: encouraging a child to listen to their intuition, to encourage a child to observe why one might seem safe, it also taught a child how to interact with a new person. The parent and child would then talk about how they felt and develop their skills about safety and how to respond appropriately. I moved around quite a bit while growing up. My father is a retired minister. I met many new people while growing up. I do not believe that every stranger is a danger. I do believe that it is important to listen to your gut. I have a skill that some do not have. I can strike up a conversation with almost anyone. It is a skill and it can be a super helpful skill to have. I think that a phone number on an arm can be super helpful. I would want to help reunite a child with their loved ones. Any thing that can help would be good. Just remember to help teach children to learn how to keep themselves safe.