It Only Takes a Moment

A few weeks ago, I had an interesting experience. It wasn't disastrous or anything, it just scared me a bit.

We were at Deseret Industries (or DI), which is an awesome thrift store. Kevin, Grig, and I were helping Havelock buy somethings before he moved into his new apartment.

Kevin and I were taking a look at baby boy swimming trunks because we're going to be swimming this summer. Kevin was walking next to me and I spotted a really cute pair of trunks. I glanced away from Kevin and glanced back and he was gone!

I had always thought mothers were silly when they couldn't find their children among clothing racks. Now I know better. The low-hanging clothing shields tiny children from view and they can be just on the other side of it and invisible.

When I saw that Kevin was gone, my heart stopped for a second. I tried to calm myself by reassuring my brain that Kevin was just on the other side and I'd find him quickly. However, as I walked around the rack of clothing, he wasn't there!

Now I was getting a bit panicked. I looked everywhere, and I just couldn't see him.

It probably only took me a minute or so, but it felt like the longest minute of my life. When I found him, he was just standing a couple racks over with his arms dangling at his side and a smile on his face that loudly pronounced that he was up to no good. One of Kevin's favorite games is to go hide and wait for you to find him, and when you do he laughs and thinks it is great fun. This time it wasn't so fun for me. He was just fine and I was very relieved, but it took a while for my heart rate to go back down.

I'm ashamed to admit that their was a part of my mind that never thought I was going to be one of those people who lost their children in the clothing at stores. I thought that was just something that happened to kids with disobedient children (although I do remember it was great fun to hide from my mother in the racks. It was like a giant playground).

Being a mother is very humbling. Sometimes judgements you didn't even know you had are exposed and turned on their heads. It really only takes a moment for kids to take off. It doesn't matter how careful you are, it can happen to anyone, especially when your son enjoys playing games where he hides from you.

It really only takes a moment.

I am so grateful that he was fine and we quickly found him. 

We have a fantastic kid and I don't want anything to happen to him, but he does like to get into trouble sometimes. I'm not always going to be able to be there to protect him, but hopefully we can raise him to make good choices when he's on his own and we're not there to watch over him.

I know I'll be even more careful next time we're at the store and less likely to think that other mothers were being careless when their kids got lost. I only have one to keep track of, what's my excuse?

Or maybe we'll just stick to book shopping. 

It's a lot easier to find kids around the shelves of books (and more enjoyable for me).