Missing Child

Today I found out that if you are going to lose your child, don't do it in Brussels, or rather, the Cora on Woluwadal in Woluwe Saint Lambert. The reason I say don't do it here, is because if you do, no one will care.

I'm sad to say that I'm not a stranger to losing my children, or rather ONE of my children. In Landon's 3 years of life I think I've lost him about 6 times, 3 of which involved frantic searching leaving me seconds away from alerting the store, the other 3 times resulting in full store lock-down as myself and countless employees combed the store. You'd think after these experiences I would chain Landon to myself or a shopping cart anytime we go anywhere, but it's been a while since our last "missing child" experience and I thought he was getting better about wandering off.

To make a very long, emotional story readable, I will tell you the short version of this story. I was walking down a side aisle when I suddenly realized that Landon wasn't with me. At this point I figure he had been "missing" about 15 seconds and by the time I had flipped my cart around to the main aisle he was no where to be found. I searched "calm on the outside, panicking on the inside" for a full 5 minutes and when I couldn't find him I went to the closest store employee, which happened to be the produce man. There were 2 guys actually and they not only showed no concern whatsoever, but they directed me to customer service. I hurried to the customer service desk and they, also unconcerned, sent me to another desk where I HAD TO WAIT IN LINE. I tried to interrupt but was told to "please wait my turn" and I stood there watching troves of people walk out of the store, trying to not let the worst case scenarios enter my mind. Landon had now been missing a full 12 MINUTES and when I finally got to talk to the woman behind the desk, I just started crying. That seemed to spur some action and she took Landon's description. Troves of people were still leaving the store and this woman and her colleague's solution to my missing child was nothing more than a brief "just so you know" message across the intercom. After this was done, the woman went back to helping the people behind me as I sat there....which I didn't do for more than about 30 seconds, because I realized that no one was going to try and find Landon except myself and Brayden. So, 15 minutes since I had seen Landon's little blonde head, Brayden and I set out to find him ourselves, completely frustrated that I had wasted any time illiciting the store's help. After many prayers and several minutes I found Landon at the total opposite end of the store where I had last seen him, standing at the end of an aisle, trying to open a gum package (giggle,giggle). From a distance he looked calm and when I said his name he threw the gum on the ground and burst into tears saying, "I didn't know where you were!!!!" and we stood there and cried together.

For always being wary of looking like an out of place American, I'm pretty sure I more than fit the bill at that moment. The whole experience was very unsettling to me, mostly because of the store's non-reaction to my missing child. I took Landon over to the desk to show them that I had found him and they gave me nothing more than a nod and a smile. No follow-up announcement, "The boy you have all been looking for has been found...." because I know, the message sent over the intercom was not paid attention to any more than a message talking about the daily special on aisle 5.

The whole situation shook Landon up quite a bit too (which I am thankful for) but that didn't keep me from stopping in the "hardware" section of the store before we left for a nice big chain and padlock for our next outing together. Crazy American? You betcha.