Soon we'll be forced to brave the crowded malls to begin our holiday shopping. And in a crowded store, kids can get into trouble.
One second your little one is beside you; the next — he's gone, and you can't find him anywhere.
This just happened to my friend Julie at JC Penney. She's a mother of three — two girls and a 5-year-old boy, CJ. Her kids were a few feet away as she checked out. But when it was time to go, CJ was missing.
They called out his name. No CJ. Seconds passed. No CJ. They started canvassing the store. No CJ.
"At this point, I'm thinking, 'I have to keep it together because my girls are really scared. I can't believe this is happening to me — my child is missing.'"
She told a clerk. The store immediately put "Code Adam" into effect. Just hearing that phrase is enough to make a parent crazy.
"Code Adam! I imagined every horrible thing on Earth," Julie said.
The code was instituted in response to the disappearance in 1981 of Adam Walsh, 6-year-old son of John Walsh, host of " America's Most Wanted." Adam was taken from a Sears store in Florida. His killer was never brought to justice.
Adam's legacy reunites parents and their kids every day. The staff at Penney's took a detailed description, guarded the doors, checked the dressing rooms and walked the floors. They found CJ scared and hiding in a rack of clothes.
Julie hugged her son and collapsed into a pile of tears. This was the longest 10 minutes of her life, she said.
It turns out CJ had followed another woman he had thought was his mother. By the time he realized it wasn't her, he was lost.
Moms often joke that we have eyes in the back of our heads, but sometimes that's not enough. Sometimes even the best moms need help.
For more information and advice-- check out this site.
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