I've been looking over this Web site for a half-hour now, and I still can't believe it. Take a look. Go ahead, I'll wait.
It seems I find something flabbergasting on each page. Like the ready-made missing child poster, or the USB that contains that poster, along with everything else the authorities will need to identify your child's decomposed corpse when it turns up in a ditch. And then there are the comments from paranoid parents. (The kid's out of sight for 15 minutes and this woman's ready to close the borders.)
OK, I am no parent, but isn't this a bit...well, morbid? Should you really be making detailed plans for your child's abduction? From what I have heard, only about 40 kids a year are abducted, so you'd probably do as well preparing yourself a "In Case Little Johnny Is Struck by Lightning" CD. Criminy.
3 comments:
I agree that it's morbid & is likely to be overkill for many, many parents. I have one experience that tempers my own "Criminy!" response...
We took the Young Sir to a large amusement park in another state when he was old enough to be fairly autonomous but young enough to wander off without fully grasping the danger. He wandered away from us in a crowded gift shop & was "missing" for... an eternity? Fifteen minutes? Less than 15 minutes? I really don't know.
What I *do* remember was the blinding panic & feeble attempts to remember exactly when he was last seen with us, what he was wearing, his distinguishing features, etc. All those details that fade through comfortable familiarity, you know?
It all worked out in the end, but still... I can understand how, for some parents, having those backup plans could seem like a talisman against it ever happening to them.
We didn't feel a need to drastically change our lives or alter how we supervised our kid, but... yeah. I can see where that panic might drive someone to take those paranoid precautions.
Just my two cents. :)
Thanks for sharing that, Amy, and the thing is I don't blame anyone for feeling panic at losing track of a small child in a crowded place. I'm sure I'd feel much the same. What I hope I wouldn't do is allow that experience to (as you say) to guide the way I supervise my child in general.
Web sites like the one I linked prey on that understandable panic and lure caregivers into turning that panic into action by taking unnecessary and paranoid measures to counter a threat that is less than one-in-a-million.
At an amusement park, I once found a kid's info card complete with names, parents' pictures, home & vacation addresses & cells plus a 3rd party to call. Impressive though a tad ineffective when NOT around the kid's neck!?!
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