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Woman Finds Her Missing Toddler In A Supermarket With The Help Of A “Hack” She Saw On TikTok
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Woman Finds Her Missing Toddler In A Supermarket With The Help Of A “Hack” She Saw On TikTok

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Few things in life are scarier than the moment you realize your child is missing. Your heart skips a beat and the whole world freezes.

But this is precisely what happened to one mom while shopping at a Kmart. After frantically and silently rummaging through the store, the mom suddenly remembered seeing a viral TikTok with a trick on how to find your child in a harrowing situation like this.

The trick was posted by parenting blogger Jess Martini, who shared a clip on her TikTok platform back in November 2020. “Do not start silently looking, you wanna look loudly, and what I mean by that is you start shouting their description while you look,” Jess stated in a video which amassed 152.2k likes.

Following Jess’ advice, the mom began shouting inside the store: “I’m missing a little boy, he’s wearing a yellow shirt and has brown hair. He’s two years old and his name is Nathan,” and they luckily got reunited. Let’s see Jess’ potentially life-saving hack in full right below.

Parenting vlogger Jess Martini posted this advice on what to do if your child goes missing in a public space and it went viral

@jesmartiniPSA that I feel can save kids and I’ve used- if your child goes missing in public ##momsoftiktok ##PSA ##nojudgement ##fyp ##4up ##besafe ##parentsoftiktok♬ original sound – Jess martini

Image credits: jesmartini

Image credits: jesmartini

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Image credits: jesmartini

The mum of a two-year-old lost sight of him at a Kmart store in the NSW Hunter Region, Australia on Saturday. According to Yahoo, she shared the ordeal online on one Australian Facebook group, describing it as “the scariest 10 minutes of her life.”

“One friend ran to the entry immediately and alerted the staff member to not let a boy of his description leave the store. Even if he was with an adult. Another friend searched the area he was last seen,” she wrote on Facebook.

As the woman was running along the aisles and frantically looking under racks of clothing, she realized that searching for her child in silence would achieve nothing. It was then when she remembered the piece of advice given by Jess Martini and proceeded to shout the description of her boy.

Image credits: jesmartini

Image credits: jesmartini

Image credits: jesmartini

“I’m missing a little boy, he’s wearing a yellow shirt and has brown hair. He’s two years old and his name is Nathan,” the mum just kept repeating. Soon, she realized that people around her had started to take notice. “I had every adult around me on alert. They all threw aside what they were looking at and started searching too,” she wrote in a post.

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Shortly, a sense of relief came over her as she heard a male voice behind her saying “he’s here.” “I turned back the way I came and there he was. A man had walked past him after hearing me calling out,” the woman recalled.

Image credits: jesmartini

Parents should always take precautions in case their children go missing. Here’s what you can do to prevent it: dress your child in bright colors, teach them to walk close to you, make sure your child knows their full name and phone number, write your phone number, name, and address on one of their clothing labels.

It’s always a good idea to make sure you remember what your child is wearing or take a photo of them if you’re in a crowded place. And for older kids, practice “meeting in a safe place” in case any member of the family gets lost.

And this is what others had to say about the advice

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Image credits: www.facebook.com

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m2crows avatar
Mike Crow
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

An teacher of mine taught us a life hack, take a picture of your children just before you go into a crowded place like an amusement park. So if your child goes missing and you panic and can’t recall what they are wearing you have the most current photo of them to show people (and remember yourself).

harperhale-gibson avatar
HarperTheCentaur (they/them)
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Downvote monster is going to town on this reply section. I see 0 things here worth downvoting, so what happened?

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rebeccalynch01 avatar
Rebecca Lynch
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I was paying in a newsagent and between getting my wallet out of my bag I looked back and my 3 year older was gone. It was a strip mall. We frequently went there. At first I wanted to check the other shops but thought if I stayed in the centre I'd be more likely to find him. Just like the post I kept calling him and shouting loudly what he was wearing a little boy, brown coat, blue helmet. A couple of minutes in a lady said she had seen him crossing the road. I ran in the direction and could see him in the distance with two women. I ran to him. The woman he was next to was also in the newsagents and he had followed her out as she was of similar build and hair color to mine. I was so glad to find him. But it was terrifying.

ginaamesbury avatar
Gina Babe
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

People knock the whole "leash" thing but it can happen in a second! So happy you found him

Load More Replies...
a_m_pierre avatar
A.M. Pierre
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I absolutely remember playing an impromptu and unannounced game of hide and seek with my mom in a department store by hiding in the middle of a clothing rack. Scared the living daylights out of her. When you're that little, the danger you could be in or the fear you could cause doesn't really compute. You're just playing.

kidnplay-childcare avatar
Colin Mochrie At Its Finest
Community Member
3 years ago

This comment is hidden. Click here to view.

My daughter LOVED the clothing racks. I let her in the one I was at, and she had to move along with me, and she was not to mess with the clothes. She was allowed to go down empty aisles as long as we were talking with each other or she was singing but had an end point not around a corner as to not run into people and such. Once she got too silly and pulled her pants down. Oh boy. I was next to her and was grabbing food, caught the tail end. She is a ham to the video cameras, always dancing for them. But she was always had rules to follow. She had to touch the cart or sit in it. Once, 8 mo pregnant she (3) was fine and I was finishing up at the register and she walked off. I did not even know at the time if I took my card back & just followed her. She ignored me & I couldn't catch up. She got to the first of the double doors and I realized she was too far so I left the cart and caught up (running was difficult at that stage for me) and stuck her in the seat kicking & screaming.

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m2crows avatar
Mike Crow
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

An teacher of mine taught us a life hack, take a picture of your children just before you go into a crowded place like an amusement park. So if your child goes missing and you panic and can’t recall what they are wearing you have the most current photo of them to show people (and remember yourself).

harperhale-gibson avatar
HarperTheCentaur (they/them)
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Downvote monster is going to town on this reply section. I see 0 things here worth downvoting, so what happened?

Load More Replies...
rebeccalynch01 avatar
Rebecca Lynch
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I was paying in a newsagent and between getting my wallet out of my bag I looked back and my 3 year older was gone. It was a strip mall. We frequently went there. At first I wanted to check the other shops but thought if I stayed in the centre I'd be more likely to find him. Just like the post I kept calling him and shouting loudly what he was wearing a little boy, brown coat, blue helmet. A couple of minutes in a lady said she had seen him crossing the road. I ran in the direction and could see him in the distance with two women. I ran to him. The woman he was next to was also in the newsagents and he had followed her out as she was of similar build and hair color to mine. I was so glad to find him. But it was terrifying.

ginaamesbury avatar
Gina Babe
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

People knock the whole "leash" thing but it can happen in a second! So happy you found him

Load More Replies...
a_m_pierre avatar
A.M. Pierre
Community Member
3 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I absolutely remember playing an impromptu and unannounced game of hide and seek with my mom in a department store by hiding in the middle of a clothing rack. Scared the living daylights out of her. When you're that little, the danger you could be in or the fear you could cause doesn't really compute. You're just playing.

kidnplay-childcare avatar
Colin Mochrie At Its Finest
Community Member
3 years ago

This comment is hidden. Click here to view.

My daughter LOVED the clothing racks. I let her in the one I was at, and she had to move along with me, and she was not to mess with the clothes. She was allowed to go down empty aisles as long as we were talking with each other or she was singing but had an end point not around a corner as to not run into people and such. Once she got too silly and pulled her pants down. Oh boy. I was next to her and was grabbing food, caught the tail end. She is a ham to the video cameras, always dancing for them. But she was always had rules to follow. She had to touch the cart or sit in it. Once, 8 mo pregnant she (3) was fine and I was finishing up at the register and she walked off. I did not even know at the time if I took my card back & just followed her. She ignored me & I couldn't catch up. She got to the first of the double doors and I realized she was too far so I left the cart and caught up (running was difficult at that stage for me) and stuck her in the seat kicking & screaming.

Load More Replies...
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