Olivia Burke
Anyone who has ever been in charge of children will know they can be hard to keep track of, especially in busy places.
Little people are more interested in following their sense of direction or playing with their pals rather than informing their parents or guardians about where they are headed, so sometimes, they can end up out of sight.
It's easy to panic when you realise that one of your kids has gone AWOL, but according to this mum, keeping calm and following the 'looking loudly' method is the best way to find your children as efficiently as possible.
Wedding photographer Krista Piper said that she was reunited with her daughter Lily 'really fast' after using the technique - although it felt like she was missing for an 'eternity'.
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In a TikTok video from 2023, she explained that she had been at a 'huge' indoor children's play area with the three-year-old and her young son when she suddenly lost sight of her little girl.
Although she insists she had been keeping an eye on the child, the youngster managed to slip away as she conversed with another parent.
The mum told social media users that there were 'a lot of nooks and crannies' where Lily could have been hiding, which only added to her fear.
Krista and her son set about trying to find Lily by doing what most people would do in this situation - calling her name.
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However, she had something of a eureka moment when she remembered the advice of another parent that she had stumbled across online.
She explained in the clip: "Right after I started calling her name, a little light bulb went off in my head. I remembered a TikTok I'd seen probably over a year ago."
The post warned parents to avoid yelling their child's name when they lose sight of them and to instead shout out a description of the kid and any identifying factors such as what they are wearing - AKA, the 'looking loudly' method.
So, Krista had a change of plan and started loudly listing off details about her daughter instead of repeating 'Lily!'
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She continued: "I stopped calling out her name, I started yelling 'little girl, pink shirt, pink Minnie Mouse shirt' [...] I'm sure people thought that I was a little crazy."
Dubbed the 'looking loudly method', this technique encourages other members of the public to join in the search and makes it easier to spot the missing child - as they might not know who Lily is, but they can spot a Minnie Mouse t-shirt.
Thankfully, the three-year-old was missing for no more than a minute and a half before she made it back to her mum.
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Krista gratefully told how she heard other parents at the children's play area repeating the description of her daughter after she switched tactics and shortly after, someone then notified her that they had eyes on little Lily.
The appreciative parent concluded: "So [public service announcement], if you ever lose your child, or dog, or anything, yell out their description, raise your voice.
"I probably looked like a crazy person, but it got the job done. I found my kid really fast."