I was reading Sweetdaisy's scary story about losing her 'baby' and it brought back memories of stories about when kids went missing or were hurt and how the parents reacted .. luckily only temporarily...but it is the most frightening experience imaginable. Every horrible thought rushes to mind.. imagination takes over almost rendering a person helpless. You never know how you'll react until it happens.. some examples..

Before I had kids, I just couldn't quite relate to how scary it might be ...a fellow classmate (we had been attending Communty College classes together) got a phone call that her son had been hit by a car.. she had been dropped off at school so I gave her a ride home and she just about passed out when we turned the corner at her neighborhood and she saw the firetrucks...he was okay but I had never seen the panic on a parent's face until then... she started screaming so loud she scared me to death.. he was fine.. I was not.

One time at work I'll never forget ( again before I had kids) the hysteria one of my fellow workers experienced when she got the phone call that her 5 year old daughter had left her daycare and they couldn't find her! She flew out of there so fast.. They eventually found her daughter walking alone down the expressway! She wanted to go home. Can you imagine the trouble the daycare must have gotten into?

Another time at a zoo, a mom was freaking out - lost her little boy ..she was nearly incoherent, crying and running around in a panic.. I tried to help and I finally found her little boy just a short distance away but I thought she was going to hypervenilate from the fear of it all.

My sister-in-law one morning awoke to one of her daughters missing.. she was 4 years old and had decided to walk to her cousins house ( 10 miles away - through freeways, busy intersections etc etc) A good samaritan saw the little girl ( who had just packed a backpack, opened the back door and went to the side gate and walked away at daybreak).... and picked her up and called the police. I still get goosebumps thinking about it .. my sister woke up and thought the older kids were playing a trick on her until she realized that she was gone. She was so panicked and hysterical she started running through the house screaming her daughter's name over and over. .. her husband had to threaten to slap her like in the movies so she could breathe again! Once they called 911, they told her they had her daughter at the station.. can you even imagine?

I never really could relate until it happened to me! Now, I know that feeling of terror so well.. One time my baby stopped breathing and when the paramedics came, they thought I was the one who needed treatment! He was fine.. I was traumatized beyond belief!

Another time, I thought I lost my kids ...long story.. but it's a feeling I'll never forget.. a white terror came over me like I could never imagine.. I honestly felt that I would pass out right there, everything went white.. I
think they were out of sight for no more than 4-5 minutes but I never want to relive that terror and I pray I never will.

Anyone else ever 'lose' their kids? Even temporarily? Is that the worst feeling or what?

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" You've Been Thunder Struck ! "

OMG...see, this is what I was saying about parenting...there is NO WAY I could do that. Watching my dog walk toward traffic on I-44 today made me crazy. Not sure what I'd do if it had been a child. Geez, Karried.

Many years ago (around 14 years), when my son was going to a private Christian pre-school, my wife and I went by one afternoon to pick him up. At this time, he was our only child.

When my wife went in to get him, she came out in tears, rather hysterical. She informed me that a staff member told her that a man came by and picked up our son earlier. We told them that nobody else was allowed to pick up our son. The staff member told us that she saw the man put our son in his car and leave.

You can imagine waht was going on in our minds. We went in to the office at the church, and spoke with the administrator, going over their procedures. About 15 minutes later, one of the teachers happen to walk by the office and saw us.

She stepped in the office, with a bg smile, and told us that she had wondered where we were at, because Stephen had been asking for us. Stephen knew that we were always on time, so he had been concerned that we were late. Come to find out, this teacher had taken Stephen in to one of the play rooms, so that he could wait for us.

Needless to say, when we saw him, we were ecstatic. We were so happy to see him and know that he was alright. There was another little boy that looked similar to our son, and he was the one that had already been picked up by his dad.

Our son had no idea what was going on, nor the scare that we had. We were so happy, that we told him to pick out a place to eat...anywhere he wanted. We ate pizza.