If a child goes missing while out with their parents, most moms and dads' first reaction is to look around while calling out their kid's name. That might work, but it turns out there could be a better strategy, and one mother who learned of that tactic on TikTok successfully implemented it recently and shared why it is such a helpful technique.
The mom, Krista Piper, took her kids to an enormous play place filled with "lots of little nooks and crannies." It's probably no surprise that she lost sight of one of her children, her three-year-old daughter Lily. She started searching for Lily, calling out her name, but then remembered a TikTok she'd seen by another mother who couldn't find her kid at a supermarket. That video recommended the "looking loudly" method, which has parents shouting out a description of their kid instead of calling their name.
She explained, "So that is what I did. I stopped calling out her name and I started yelling, 'Little girl, pink shirt, pink Minnie Mouse shirt!'" She stated, "I'm sure people thought that I was a little crazy, she was probably only missing for like a minute, to maybe a minute and a half, but for me it felt like eternity." In the end, it worked - other parents started calling out the description and before long, one found Lily.
Krista said that in retrospect, she could've added her daughter's age or hair color, but in the moment all she could think of was her clothes. She advised, "If you ever lose your child, or dog or anything, yell out their description, raise your voice. You know, I probably looked like a crazy person, but it got the job done."
Commenters agreed, writing things like, "Yes! Yelling their name doesn't help because no one knows what Sally looks like, but they can pick out a three-year-old in a pink shirt and blue jeans," and, "This is such incredible advice and any parent's worst nightmare. So thankful for mums pulling together to help find her. Good job mamma!"