We had company over on Saturday evening for dinner. Like many evenings when the weather is nice, we propped open the front and back doors. My son and his cousin were playing in the living room; my daughter was coloring with sidewalk chalk on the back porch. The wife and I were cooking and engaged in conversation when my wife realized we hadn't seen the daughter in a while. She's super independent, quite creative, and can often play alone for thirty minutes or more at a time. She'll be three in about four months.

I searched the house, garage, and front and back yards to no avail. I took out down the street and drew the attention of a neighbor who asked if I was looking for a little blonde girl. He took me in the direction he last saw that she was headed where we encountered another individual asking the same question. He indicated that his daughter had found her. About that time, a police cruiser arrived. We quickly learned that she was safe and located with a group of people about a block and a half away from our house.

She was not upset, but very happy to see her daddy. Fortunately nothing bad happened to her. All I could imagine as I searched for her was finding her body laying in the street or not finding her at all. She told her temporary caregivers her name and her parents' names. At her age, she doesn't know our phone numbers.

As if her mother and I didn't feel bad enough and were thrilled to be reunited with our daughter, the police on scene wasted no time conducting their investigation and questioning our ability to care for and protect our children. In the end it was just a learning experience with no real consequences.

Bottom line: She's safe. Lessons were learned. No more open front doors. Kids are fast! God answers prayers! I get more chances for stuff like this:



(Sorry for the off topic post, but I needed to vent. I can't shake the bellyache thinking about what might have been. I rarely let my guard down when the kids are around, but it happened.)

Glad it ended well. Yes kids are fast.

Glad she's ok. Good reminder. I'm not too quick to be overly critical when I hear news stories about kids wandering off anymore. Having kids makes you realize how it can happen to even the most vigilant parents.

I had a freaky incident happen with me and my four year old son in the restroom at my gym a few months ago that made me extremely leary of ever letting him or my daughter go in by themselves again. Turned out to be a non-malicious thing but was eye-opening how quickly things can happen.

If opening doors is regular, get some screen doors installed or a chi;d gate to put up in the front. Should help prevent this and keep bugs out if you go the screen door route.

Glad she was okay!

And in before /schmellbacoprant.

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the police on scene wasted no time conducting their investigation and questioning our ability to care for and protect our children. In the end it was just a learning experience with no real consequences.

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Thank goodness that cop used some discretion and didn't decide CPS needed to visit - that could've turned into a total nightmare.

My wife and I took our 14 month old daughter to a little raptor (bird, not dinosaur) festival at a nearby state park over the weekend (we're currently in Northern Va.) She's just now getting to an age where she sometimes enjoys playing by herself, and her walking and climbing skills seem to increase daily.

Anyway, right before leaving we took her to play on a small slide for a little while. I would let her go at the top of the slide, and my wife would catch her at the bottom. She absolutely loved it. Afterwards, when I was carrying her back to the car, she got a little squirmy, so I let her down to walk. She immediately took off back toward the playground. My wife and I both thought it would be funny to see how far she gets before looking back or turning around, because the playground was probably 75 yards away across a field, but she's never even glanced back. I finally had to chase her down and carry her back.

We both got a huge kick out of how determined she was to get back to the slide, but it also made us realize that we've got an adventurous little girl on our hands, and we're going to have to work pretty hard to balance letting her explore and play without completely losing track of her.

As a parent, we have all lost a child some point, even if only for 1 minute.
It's terrifying but reminds you to stay grounded and focus on what's important.

Hell, I got lost a parade when I was 4 in Downtown Dallas.
A cop put me on his shoulders until he got a radio call from others who were looking for me.
No harm, no foul.

FatZilla said:

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If opening doors is regular, get some screen doors installed or a chi;d gate to put up in the front. Should help prevent this and keep bugs out if you go the screen door route.

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We're in temporary accommodations right now while we're waiting for our new house to be built. The lesson is no more open front door. We'll have lived in this house for two years come autumn and probably prop the front and back doors open 1-3 times a week to air out the house and save a little on A/C costs. She's never gone in the front yard without asking, let alone left the property.

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the police on scene wasted no time conducting their investigation and questioning our ability to care for and protect our children. In the end it was just a learning experience with no real consequences.

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Thank goodness that cop used some discretion and didn't decide CPS needed to visit - that could've turned into a total nightmare.

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I don't want to turn this into an argument about the police. They have a job to do and I respect that. However, I will clarify that the police interaction wasn't without some tension and confusion. Because there's always more to the story...

It was pretty plain to see she's mine the way she ran to me. Additionally, the neighbors said she told them her full name and our names. Two officers arrived. Upon request, I gave my name, DOB, address, and phone number to one. I also asked for his card. He looked at me like I had no business having his information, then pointed to his name tag and said "here it is". I politely said "you have my information, I'd like to have yours so that I have a record of who I spoke with."

The other officer interrupted and asked for my ID. I asked why he wanted it and things got a little tense for a while. I explained that I did not have my DL on me and that I had walked over. He asked for my DL number and I politely asked why he needed it as I had already provided my information to the other officer.

(Here's the part where I'll lose some of you. Why in the hell wouldn't I just give over my license number, even if I'm not legally required by the situation to do so? I've got nothing to hide. I dunno. I was coming down from an adrenaline rush of having lost my second born child. In the instant that it happened, I just didn't make sense of why they needed it. As I said, it was pretty plain to see she was mine by the way she ran to me and hugged me and wouldn't let go. All I wanted to do was go back home so we could celebrate the fact that she was safe and nothing bad happened. Them asking for my ID made me worry that they wanted to make this criminal. I knew I was within my legal right to refuse, so I did.)

I never felt threatened and they never tried to remove my daughter from her death grip around my neck. I was told not to be defensive and that they just wanted to make sure they were giving the child to the right person. I explained that I understood and appreciated that. They then started asking how long before I knew she was missing, were there other children in the house, what were their names and ages, how many were related to me, who else was present, etc. The officer that requested my ID explained that his supervisor instructed him to do so. So I asked to speak with the supervisor.

They followed us to my house, indicated that there was nothing further from a criminal nature, and asked for some reassurance that this was an accident and wouldn't happen again before bidding us farewell.

The supervisor showed up and asked about my issue of not providing identification. I said there was no issue. I did provide my identification and was truthful, but that I didn't see how my DL was relevant. I got the same story about making sure that the child went to the right person. I confirmed that no report was filed and no case was opened before we shook hands and he wished us well.

I suspect that they wanted to run me or the wife for warrants or restraining orders, which I'm sure they can do with my name and DOB. I suppose they just wanted my DL to put a picture with the name. They never asked for any kind of identification for my daughter, other than name and DOB. I could obviously produce a birth certificate, but I was leery of that given that I keep them in our gun safe. I certainly didn't want to have to open that in their presence...too many itchy trigger fingers.

In the end, it was an overall good interaction. I got to keep my daughter. We are not even close to being neglectful parents and it was simply an accident (one I am NOT proud of!).

There... Now y'all can Monday morning quarterback the police stuff all you want.


I just realized that was a LONG reply, so I'll add:

TL;DR - I was polite during the interaction with the police while they asked A LOT of questions that I really didn't want to deal with to rule out neglect and everything ended fine.

You did nothing wrong.

We lost Dubi son #1 multiple times at Astroworld and at Moody Gardens in Galveston. It happens even to vigilant parents.

The parents who don't lose their kids are sitting on the sofa looking at their iphones.

dlance said:

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Glad she was okay!

And in before /schmellbacoprant.

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Way to jump to a conclusion, hope you fell better about yourself I suppose.

I would only go on a rant if the police were to become inappropriate in this situation, but it does not appear that they did, so nothing to really rant about. They asked a few questions, that is their job. CPS was not called. Todd's kiddo was safe and he has a story to tell - good ending IMO.

When I was six years old, I decided I'd go for a drive. I left the house, got in mom's 78 Toyota Corona, popped the parking break off and was off to the races backwards down the driveway. Ended up in the front yard of the house across the street. We all had a good laugh that no one/nothing was hurt and then I got my ass whipped.

I lost my son for almost 20 minutes a few years ago at a fair. He was four at the time and we were waiting for the fire truck parade to start in a little while. Mommy and Granny went off to shop in one of the craft barns, and the boy and I were hanging out on the midway. I saw a buddy from town, and we walked over and started chatting. I dropped my son's hand while we were talking for probably 30 seconds, and then looked down for him. I couldn't see him. I made a 360 scanning for the little scamp to see where he'd headed, and I couldn't see him anywhere. Another more careful 360, then a 720, then my heart started to race. There were hundreds of people, maybe a thousand within 200 yards. I started jogging expanding 360 circles around where I'd lost him. One, two, three, now I was covering 50-100 yards around where I'd last seen him. I stopped and called my wife's cell and told her to come running, that I'd lost the kid. That's not a phone call you want to make. Then I stopped running and just started going to places that I thought he'd have headed. Hog barn? Nope. Midway fishbowl games? Nope. Finally, it dawned on me that he was excited for the fire truck parade, and maybe he was there. I trotted up to the street where people were lining up for the parade and started walking up the street. There he was, 30 yards away, sitting just as nice as you please next to a grandmotherly lady and chowing down on a bag of popcorn. She could tell by the expression on my face that I was his dad and she started laughing. She said he'd just walked up and sat down and started chatting her up about the parade. She asked him where his mommy and daddy were and he replied "over there". She told me she was pretty sure he was too small to be running around by himself and that she had vowed not to let him out of her sight until she found either mommy and daddy or a police officer. She'd given him her bag of popcorn and he'd just settled in for the parade. She refused to let me buy her another bag of popcorn. I was thankful that he ran into good folks. Most folks are, but you are always afraid of the ones that aren't.

dlance said:

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schmellba99 said:

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dlance said:

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Glad she was okay!

And in before /schmellbacoprant.

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Way to jump to a conclusion, hope you fell better about yourself I suppose.

I would only go on a rant if the police were to become inappropriate in this situation, but it does not appear that they did, so nothing to really rant about. They asked a few questions, that is their job. CPS was not called. Todd's kiddo was safe and he has a story to tell - good ending IMO.

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C'mon man. Just pokin' at you.

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There are three things that are certain in life:

• death
• taxes
• schmellba99 will take up a position on an issue each day and author a longwinded self-righteous manifesto on the subject

"Go check on the kids. They aren't fighting and it's quiet...something's wrong"


A phrase muttered often around my house. Lol.

Glad the kid is safe.

Man, I just can't kick the Bad Dad guilt...

Dropping the kids off at daycare this morning, my son decides to tell the mother of one of his classmates, who's husband happens to be a police officer, that his "sister ran away from home this weekend and the police got called and it was ALL my Mommy and Daddy's fault."

Gee thanks, kid!

So then we got a lecture about how we need to be happy that sister is safe and not tell other people about our personal things. Mommy and Daddy are not proud of what happened and other people don't need to know.

Kids say the darnedest things, I guess...

We've talked a lot the last few days about not crossing the street, not opening the doors, not leaving the yard, only playing in the backyard, watch out for your sister, etc. to both kids. I know it's topical and the memory will fade, for them, at least.