Mum Jess Martin took to TikTok to explain how to use the ‘looking loudly’ technique, one she hopes can help parents if they ever lose their children in a public space
TikTok user advises on what to do if a child goes missing
No parent wants to think about the possibility of their child going missing, but it is important to know how to react should the nightmare ever come true.
One mum, who once experienced the horror of losing her child in a supermarket, has shared her top tips in the hope of helping other parents, plus the reason why she recommends the ‘lookly loudly’ technique. The mum, who posts under the name @jesmartin, revealed how the method helped her find her son when he wandered off in a shop. Now, she hopes her experience can help others should they ever find themselves in the terrifying situation.
“If you’re at an amusement park, zoo, mall, whatever it is, and you look around and your child is no longer with you, what you want to do is start loudly looking for them. Do not start silently looking for them,” she explained in the clip. “You want to look loudly, and what I mean by that is you start shouting their description while you look. It’s going to sound like this: I’m looking for a boy, age five, short brown hair, brown eyes, Caucasian, red Nike T-shirt, black shorts, black shoes.
“Now you’ve got every single person who’s around you looking for your child instead of just you, and best case scenario somebody finds your child and they return them to you.” If it was a worst case scenario, and someone had taken your child, this increases their chances of simply letting them go after hearing everyone immediately looking for them and knowing exactly what they look like. You may feel you look stupid doing it, and maybe you do, but it is so much better to look stupid than to be sorry,” Jess added.
The mum went on to share a few more tips, which included dressing your children in bright matching colours so they’ll be easy to spot while out in public. “Once I was at a play place and there were three brothers and they were all dressed in neon pink. The only thing I could focus on was those brothers because they stood out so much,” she added. Jess also suggested taking photos of the children before you go out, so you have pictures to show people exactly what they look like on that particular day, as well as writing your phone number on your kids’ arms. Hopefully none of Jess’ viewers will ever need to use the tips, but in the event a parent ever loses their child, these tips could make a real difference.
