Yes, you read that right.  We lost our kids at Disney World.  I’m pretty sure it’s not all that uncommon to lose kids at Disney World, and even though it didn’t come down to needing this, I’m thankful that my sister gave us a cool little tip before we left for the day (more about that in a bit)!

Of course, it rains quite frequently in Orlando.   We had just decided to find something to eat because it looked like a storm was brewing.  We wanted to make sure that we were inside somewhere before the bottom fell out.  Well, that happened… kinda.

It started to rain, so we all ducked into a restaurant.  All of us except my oldest son and my nephew.  These guys.

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We did a headcount while we were in line, because we had six kiddos with us (yes, six kids and six adults!). Two were missing. My sister immediately went into freak out mode which put me into freak out mode which put my brother-in-law and my husband (as well as a lot of people who were in line with us) into freak out mode.

Andy ran one way and Sam (brother-in-law) took off in different directions, and frankly, I took off, but I have no idea which way I went!  Thankfully, the boys were smart enough to stick together and stay where they were, and Andy found them about 500 yards ahead of where we stopped to eat seconds before THEY went into freakout mode.  We were away from them for all of five minutes.

So, are you wondering about the tip that my sister gave us before we left? We simply wrote our cell number on the kids’ arms! (eta)  Our kids know our numbers, but we were thinking we didn’t know what they would do in the event that they were panicked!!

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If you’re worried about your phone dying while you’re there, you can either write both of your cell phone numbers on their arms or you can find some kind of portable charger for your phone to take with you.  Or take your charging cord with you.  If you lose your children, duck into a shop and plug your phone in.

I’ve also been told that it’s a good idea to take pics of your kids with your cell phone before you start the day.  They’ll be more easily identifiable by the clothing they are wearing that day.

I wish I would have known to give this to a blogger friend before we left as she lost her daughter at a park as well.  It may have been easier to find her.

What methods do you use in case you lose your kiddos at large events or outings? Are you going to hire bodyguard services? If you want, you may consider hiring security services like this Philippines event security.