Hint Mama contributor Karen Witham recently shared a tip to decrease the odds of losing your children in a crowd: Dress them in bright, matching neon colors.
But what happens if you do actually lose track of your child in a crowd? How can you be more prepared for such a situation? Today’s hint is one such method.
The trick: Before you head out into a crowd, have each adult (or teen) with a phone (or digital) camera take a full body picture of each child. That way, when asked what your little one looks like, you’ll be able to accurately describe to a tee what he or she is wearing.
My family member, who passed along this tip, calls it her “Disney World Crowd hint.” “When kids are lost, the first thing a cast member [at Disney World] will ask you is ‘What do they look like?’ With a full picture you can provide a much more accurate description,” she says.
For instance, with the help of a picture, you’ll more likely be able to describe little details like patterns and pictures on shirts, hairstyles, hats, sock colors and other identifying features.
It also turns out that my family member isn’t the only fan of this trick. Sites including Saving Said Simply, Traveling Mom and Couponing to Disney have suggested it, and Lifehacker covered the idea in a piece last year. More recently, a person commenting in response to another Lifehacker post advises parents to “take pictures of your kids when you park the car. That way you won’t have a problem forgetting were you parked, and worse case scenario, you have a current picture of your little ones.”
In addition, the same person also suggests that kids old enough to have a phone take pictures of their parents and car as well so “they can show officials what their parents and car look like.” And if your child is too young to have a phone, another commenter advises you to consider sticking a picture of yourself in your child’s backpack or pocket, so your little one will be able to accurately describe what you look like.
To be sure, most of the tactics above wouldn’t be helpful if your phone or camera gets lost along with your child. And of course, it’s unlikely that your child will actually get lost.
Still, the shots mentioned above are still worth taking because if the scary lost-child scenario does occur, you’ll want to be prepared. And you can try to make the daily full body picture a cute one so it deserves a spot in your vacation album. Looking for other ideas to help make a lost-child easier to find? Check out great related tips over at Minitime and these over at The Disney Moms.
What are your tips for keeping track of – and finding – your kids in crowds?
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I used to do this with my siblings! When we would travel with my dad, and I had a cell phone, I would snap photos of my brother before going anywhere. Before that, my sister and I used to write down what he was wearing in case we forgot in a panic! GREAT hint! There should be an app for this…