This summer I had the chance to experience that feeling. My daughter and I were spending a few days on vacation at a tourist destination and decided that while I was running a message she was going to look at a toy store. Despite my insistence that he not leave alone In the end he left while I was entertained with my message.
The commitment we acquired, and that I think was one of the keys, was that when I returned I would wait for her where I had stayed. So he left and when I wanted to realize and long after I finished my message, the little one did not come back.
So I started doing explorations of the area looking out over the shops, it was a commercial area in the open air street, while I kept track of the meeting point. It also got complicated because people started walking around and it was hard to see. Also and as time went by, it's when you start thinking things in your head, right? They will have taken her away, she will be lost, she will be telling someone who she is, she has hit herself, she has been confused on her way, etc. Everything accelerates quickly in the head and you decide that when you see it appear, because hope is never lost, you will tell him something he will never forget.
And then I see her come with a scared face and crying and throwing her arms because she is aware that she has been in a situation she did not control and that frightened her. So I tried to calm her down and reassure her because the scare she had was enough to expand it. His explanation was that he was wrong to leave the store and he chose the way in the opposite directionWhen he wanted to turn around and retrace his steps, he was already insecure and distraught. Still everything ended well fortunately.
We also take advantage to check what had happened and try to prevent it from happening again because in the area where we were on vacation she had many references: leisure areas on the beach, the kiosk where we bought the magazines, the Church, the Hotel, the candy store (and the seller with whom we crossed both when we were lost) And we knew even a shop where you could enjoy the foot cleaning service by putting them on a pylon with some little fish to eat the impurities slowly (or so they said). And whenever we passed my daughter and I laughed.
So please, let's try to avoid this feeling. Let's keep an eye on our children whenever we are in open places, let's try to make sure that if they escape they have clear references to return or to go looking for them, keep calm, think about what they see putting us at their height (their field of vision is very limited) and when they reappear try not to scare them anymore because the tantrum seems to me that they have already passed it on.
