Parents board flight, forget toddler at airport

Source: http://uk.news.yahoo.com/afp/20080513/tod-canada-airline-child-philippines-off-7f81b96.html


GOLLY. I can relate to that a bit, having left Top Monkey's precious camera on board while we were frantically opening hand luggage, searching for his wallet. In the confusion, you just forget things. Honestly, you just do. After the very efficient staff at Soekarno-Hatta airport here in Jakarta had helped him locate the camera, he handed it to me (was my job to carry it while he struggled with luggage) and said to me wearily, "Don't do this with the baby, okay?"

I was all panicky thinking I'd lost the camera, which wasn't your average point-and-shoot type, so I can imagine how the family must have felt when they realised their little one was lost. The panic must have been magnified a thousand times. All ended well though, the family was reunited in Canada a day later.

Reminds me of how I'd gotten lost as a 4-year-old in a shopping mall in Singapore once. My aunt, who was supposed to keep an eye on me, thought I was with my parents. Naturally, my parents thought I was with her. It was Christmas and the mall was crowded. The adults all stepped into a lift, not realising I was still staring at the reindeer display. My dad said they panicked right away when they realised I wasn't with them and they got out of the lift the moment they could and hopped into another to get back to my floor.
Was I crying? Not a bit! When I stopped staring at the reindeer and took a look around, I realised that I was alone. It didn't scare me a bit and I remembered thinking to myself, "Oh well, I'll just take a taxi back to Uncle's place." and went on wandering around quite happily.
I happened to walk in front of the lifts and when the doors opened, there were my frantic parents. I looked up, saw them and walked into the lift nonchalantly with a "Oh, there are you are" sort of expression while my parents nearly melted from the relief.

Well, in any event, they would have found me quite quickly because they'd taught me that if I got lost, I was to stay where I was (I didn't do that then!) and if someone in the store uniform (they'd point that out to me when we got into stores) came to ask me, I was to tell them my name and my parents' names and ask them to help look for my Papa and Mama.

I think I'll teach Little Monkey that the moment she's old enough to understand. Don't want to end up leaving her on the plane like I did the camera!