30 january 2010, am I becoming a daily mail reader ??

Saturday 30th January 2010

Nearly lost the kids today, at the manchester museum (which is excellent). Youngest got walkie-talkies for his birthday, and the plan was to use them in case the kids got lost. In fact they raced off immediately, although stayed in touch. I was much more relaxed than my other half, who in turn was an ice block compared to our (israeli) friend when her daughter joined our two, and all three promptly stopped answering, went awol and absolutely could not be found as we raced around ever more frantically, shouting their names ever more loudly – eventually with the security team in tow. They were fine in the end of course, and I did find myself wondering if my parents would have got quite so hysterical quite so quickly, and whether the fear of awful things happening to kids was always there. I think it was, but society was much more familiar then, people knew each other more – even if they were strangers. Our oldest was lost once before, in tel aviv market, which was truly terrifying; but I do recall literally the whole market joining our frantic search, shouting his name and reassuring us he’d be OK, until news travelled up that he’d been found by a policeman. By contrast, people in the museum ignored us or gave a pitiful or even a “you’re disturbing me” look. Not quite a sense of community. We’re back in our home is our castle now though, safe, sound and surrounded.