A Mum's Worst Nightmare on the Tube: Lost Child and Grateful Thanks

@awman please don't take this badly but what about a bungee/shock absorbing dog lead you can get running belts so you can clip to a belt around your waist attach to a loop on her jeans or even round her waist must be terrifying at 2 as they are so fast and unaware of the dangers ..
 
This happened to my mum when me and my siblings were younger , my brother got off the train and it was wrong stop so we got back on and the doors shut before my brother got back on
 
Thanks for the reminder to go over our family „rules“ for how to deal with this, again.
Namely:
If a child gets left on a platform, the instruction is „don‘t panic, but STAY EXACTLY WHERE YOU ARE. The adults will turn around at the next possible opportunity and return for you.“
If a child boards a vehicle and we don’t, „remain calm, and GET OFF AT THE NEXT STOP, THEN STAY EXACTLY WHERE YOU ARE. We will be along to collect“.
If the child can see someone like public transport personnel, or police, tell them what happened, and explain that you are waiting here for your parents, your family has rules for this, and your parents will return for you as soon as they can. You can ask them if you can use a cell phone to call us - speak to me yourself, don’t simply believe them if they spoke to me. (all of the kids knew my number off by heart from about age two - if yours don’t know your number yet, then my top tip is, give it a daft catchy tune, make a kind of jingle out of it and sing it together every morning at breakfast).
Other possible sources of help include parents with children of their own. Go by your gut feeling, if it feels wrong, then listen to that feeling.
In any case, refuse to go off with anyone, anywhere, no matter what they tell you.
We discuss this scenario regularly with the kids. It started because my oldest got in a flap one day about 3 years old when he realised it was possible to be left behind. Having the rules helps to keep everyone calm and safe.
 
@krithik reading the comments and didn't realise how often this happens 😲 but we should definitely chat with the kids about always getting off at the next stop and we'd meet them, and luckily ours are a little bit older now so would hopefully not panick so much and remember what to do 😬 scary for us though and would not stop panicking 😭
 
Oh my god, that must have been soooo scary for you and your daughter 😳 so glad someone looked after her for you, literally worse nightmare come true!!!
I remember taking my 1 and 2 year old on their first train ride with my mum, my mum got my daughter over the gap safely and carried on with her and I had my son in pushchair. As I got off I thought I missed the gap, but the front wheels went down!! My poor boy was hanging upside down in his pushchair with me frantically yanking on it trying to get it loose!! Everyone just stood staring at me and my mum had disappeared round the corner lol.. luckily a little old lady (of all people!!) Came and unstuck the front wheels from the gap 😳😳 I'll never forget the middle aged man with his suitcase watching me, looking pissed off that he couldn't get past me on the train!!! 😡😡
 
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