5-Year-Old Left Behind - Parents Don't Notice for 14 Hours
Categories: Kids 5-7, Weird But True
With so much to do during the holidays, it is inevitable that some things will slip through the cracks. Perhaps you didn't get your Christmas cards out on time or you forgot to buy a gift for one of your relatives. That happens to the best of us. But most of us never get distracted to the point where we misplace one of our own children and don't even notice for fourteen hours! But, then again, most of us don't have eight plus children to keep track of.The Home Alone references are unavoidable in this story, but unlike the movie, nobody was laughing when a 5-year-old boy was found wandering alone late at night in a Melbourne, Australia neighborhood a few days before Christmas. The boy was able to give police his first name -- Alexander -- but that was about it. He couldn't tell them his last name, where he lived or how he came to be alone away from home so late at night.
The boy spent the night at the police station and the next day, public pleas were made for his parents to come forward. They did, but not until around lunchtime when they finally realized they were missing a kid. Turns out that the family, along with a few neighbor kids, had taken two cars to go out looking at Christmas lights. When they all piled into the two cars to return home, the adults assumed Alexander was in the other car.
That part is understandable, I guess. But how they failed to notice Alexander wasn't with them when they all got home and went to bed is beyond me. Like in the movies, this story has a happy ending. Alexander is fine and has been reunited with his relieved parents. However, unlike in the movies, his careless parents have some explaining to do to the child welfare authorities.
You can say a lot of things about these parents and their lack of vigilance in keeping track of their large family. But what strikes me as odd is the fact that a five-year-old child wouldn't know his own last name or where he lives.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
kaylee 12-29-2008 @ 5:27PM
thank god the kid is back with his family
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Heather 1-01-2009 @ 9:46PM
I find that odd too that he didn't know his last name either.We are still working on the exact adress but at least my son who is 5 knows the street name and could lead the police to our house once in the neighborhood.
How can you not notice when you get home that one child isn't there.
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Andrea S. 2-26-2009 @ 10:15PM
I was born deaf and had zero language until age 3, when my parents started learning sign language to communicate with me. Until then I certainly didn't know my name, the word "Mom," or any other vocabulary: without visual access to language, I had no way to learn any of these things.
But by age 5, just two years later I was able to write my full name, including last name. And I remember when I was in the 1st grade, my parents drilled me in memorizing my street address and phone number (even though I couldn't use the phone, since the technology to make phones accessible to deaf people wasn't really wide spread in those days -- they wanted me to know so that, if I needed it, I could ask a hearing adult to call for me).
So I, too, am rather surprised at learning of a hearing child with no disabilities (or at least so I'm guessing from the sketchy details given) still not knowing his own last name by age 5.
Ryou 12-30-2008 @ 9:24AM
How does a parent not realize their 5 year old is gone? It's not like a teenager, who, if randomly disappeared would have a mild idea of what to do. This is a little kid who could have easily been captured by perverts. Think about it, a little kid, who doesn't even know his last name, wandering around the middle of nowhere near his home at night? That screams danger. I'm surprised the kid is okay, I'd be really hesitant to give the child back to his parents. I understand thinking he was in the other car, but you think they would've, even if not at night, at least in the morning, unless the kid is completely self-reliant. Though since he didn't even know his last name. I doubt it.
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Leslie 12-30-2008 @ 10:07AM
Once while attending a state fair, my son who was two or three at the time exited the end of a slide ride at the same time I turned my head to a lady that said hi to us. He didn't notice us standing there and freaked and took off to look for me. I relized almost immediately that he was not there and went to look for him. Luckily two little old ladies noticed him walking alone frantically looking and took him to the police set-up at the fair. My son however was bright enough to tell them his name, my name and even went as far as telling them what I was wearing. So, when the police then saw me searching, they stopped me and asked me my name. Then, they took me to my son. The moral of my story is: make sure that your child knows their name and yours and can help themselves out. If they can't, DON'T LET GO OF THEIR HAND! This might solve a problem. Had my son been like the kid in the story.....just imagine.
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