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Filed under: Toddlers Preschoolers, In The News, Weird But True
A three-year-old Missouri boy was found unharmed in the woods after wandering away from home on Monday. Photo courtesy of sxc.hu.
Three year old Joshua Childers wandered away from his house at 11:30 am Monday morning. Mom was taking a nap, dad was on the phone. The parents of course panicked when they couldn't find their son. Turns out Joshua had wandered into Mark Twain Forest in Madison County, Missouri. Despite the friendly name, the forest is pretty treacherous. Bears. Mountain lions. Snakes. (Oh my.) Frankly, no matter what the terrain is like, he's a little kid. So him being lost for more than a few seconds would be enough to send me looking for a Valium. Or four.
Luckily, Joshua was fine. Searcher Donnie Halpin found him. Well, first he found his butt. Donnie told CBS' Early Show: "I could just see the little part of his little butt sticking up there, and I took a couple more steps, and I could see his legs. I thought the worst at first. I said, 'Hey, buddy,' And that little feller just sit right up, gets a little smile on his face and I asked him, 'Do you want to go home?'" He did. I mean, hey. Clearly the kid is pretty tough and may be the future host of Survivorman. But he's still only three years old.
Not only did Joshua survive the ordeal with just a few bumps and scrapes -- he wasn't even wearing pants! CBS News says that the tot was wearing "just a pull-up diaper, a t-shirt and sneakers." Amazing.
All's well that ends well, of course. But this does bring up a fear that I think all parents have, especially when our kids are this young: The possibility that your child might get out of the house unsupervised. We live in an apartment, and once I realized that my youngest son could open the bottom lock on our front door, I made certain that the top lock was secure at all times. My hope is that by the time he's tall enough to reach the top lock, he will also be smart enough to not leave. My motto: No toddler jailbreaks.
Tell us your stories: Did your children ever wander away from home when they were toddlers? How far did they get? Did you find them yourself or call in reinforcements?
Brett Singer is the editor-in-chief of DaddyTips.com. You can follow his tweets at Twitter.com/brettsinger.
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ReaderComments (Page 1 of 1)
5-08-2009 @ 12:34PM
SKL said...My little one (2) has a wanderlust. Last year she did a fair amount of "time out" for not observing the limits of her stomping ground. This year it's starting again. We live on the edge of a forest preserve and there are coyotes, foxes, raccoons, etc. who occasionally run through our yard. The edge of the yard is a fairly steep ravine. I talk to my kids all the time about safe behavior and help them to develop skills for navigating ever more difficult terrain, but I still get a little nervous when my daughter wanders out of my sight.
When I heard they found one sneaker near the pond, I thought the little boy was gone. They were thinking of giving up the search by the time he was found. That freaks me out more than anything - the idea that the search could have been abandoned while he still wandered around for who knows how long. Thank God he was found OK.
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5-08-2009 @ 6:28PM
maritza said...i remeber wondering away with a cousin when i was probably 5 or 6. my parents, my sisters, and my cousin and i went to the mall. it was my second time at a mall. me and my cousin wondered off to play on the escalators, we went up then down. wen we came back down we couldnt find my parents anywhere! we looked in every store! wen we were tired of looking we went to the parkin lots to wait by the car. wen we got there the car was gon! lol my parents had left us there. omg! right!
wel i had taken the bus with an aunt to that mal bfore so i kinda remeberd how to take one. to make it short we ended up takin the bus back home. we got off on a familiar street and startd walkin, while we were walkin my dad honks and piks us up. i thought he was goin bak lookin for us but he said he was goin to the store and saw us. lol omg right! i gues dat thaought me not to wonder off next time or that i can take care of myself...
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