It's one of every parent's worst nightmares to lose their child. Things happen, you can turn around for a single moment, and when you turn back... they're gone. Children are so easily distracted, and they wander off without a second thought. One of my siblings had a tendency to wander, from toddlerhood even into her teen years.
When I was about 6 1/2, my sister, about 5 at the time, was lost for the first time. My (drunk) biological father was watching us from the porch of our apartment, while we played in a playground across the parking lot. My mother had gone grocery shopping at Safeway. Along the playground, there was a long sidewalk along a building that led to a large parking lot, and then went into Safeway. I was instructed to watch my sister. While we were playing with other kids, I told her to hold onto my jacket and not let go, so that I wouldn't lose her. I turned around for a minute as I talked with another girl close to my age, and when I turned around... she was just... gone.
I shouted out to my biological father, who I will refer to as R. He ran down, calling for her, but she was nowhere to be seen. He looked like a volcano about to blow, he was so angry. I have a very vivid memory of him racing back up to the apartment as fast as he could as he held my hand. The stairwell was made up of stones and cement, and R ended up essentially dragging me up the steps, my knees were bloodied from scraping along the edge of each step up to our apartment. I sobbed, and worried that I had made the biggest mistake of my life. What if we couldn't find her? I had only turned around for a moment, how could she have gone so far?
But, not even 30 minutes later, my mother returned from Safeway... with my little sister, M, holding onto her hand. As it turns out, my sister must have seen the way our mother had walked to the grocery store. All by herself, she made it to Safeway. My mother, as she was shopping, heard over the intercom that there was a lost little girl at customer service. She just had a gut feeling that she should go see. Sure enough, it was my little sister. She was told that she had been found by a man who had seen her filling up a kiddie cart of candy from the bulk bins.
Many years later is the other very good memory I have of my sister M getting lost. She was about 12 at this time. We went to the Chinese New Year festival as a family---my mother, myself, and all four of my siblings. As we always did, we grilled my siblings on what they would do if they were lost: "Stay put, if you are very lost, find a mother with children and ask her for help. Don't walk off with strangers!" Not an hour later, M was nowhere to be seen. My mother and I agreed on a place to meet back at, and we split up to look for my sister. She went back the way we had come, and I went down the way we were headed. Half an hour later, I found her, wandering down the street without a care in the world. I was so furious. She did the exact opposite of what she was told to do less than a few hours before, and there she was walking along carelessly when we had frantically been looking for her.
Although now 21, she still has a carefree nature and a tendency to wander off. My mother, as so many do, still has a tendency to worry. My sister was gone overnight once, without a call or anything to let her know where she was, and my mother was worried sick. Luckily, everything turned out all right. But for all my mother knew before she showed up the next day, things could have been horribly, horribly wrong.
This is where REACT Mobile can help! REACT Mobile is a free app for iPhones and Android phones that allows the user to use their phone as an important safety device. Created by an individual who himself was held at gunpoint several years ago during a home invasion, he was inspired to find a way to make it easy to get help when you need it.
How does REACT Mobile work? It's very simple, you can allow REACT Mobile to track your location, which can be watched by family and friends---whoever you trust most. You can send a "I'm Safe" message to all those who were watching you once you've reached your destination. Should you need help, you can send an SOS message, and you will be prompted to call 911. Another great thing is that you can use REACT Mobile as a tool if you witness something to, so that you can inform authorities. If you are not in North America (in which case your emergency number would not be 911), you can select the country you are located in under the settings so that you will be calling the emergency service line wherever in the world that you are. So you can still use REACT Mobile, no matter where in the world you are!
REACT Mobile is certainly something I could see being useful to my mother when it came to my sister. Even when she was too young, if she had put an emergency phone under her clothes, although my sister wouldn't have been old enough to use any of the features on REACT Mobile, my mother could have traced her to know exactly where she was, and exactly where to find her.
Its benefits only grow as your children, and they can take advantage of all of the features of REACT Mobile, so that they can keep in touch with you when they are out late, or even just walking through a not-so-good neighborhood. Of course, the REACT Mobile features are not only beneficial to children! It can be useful for anyone --- whether a child, college student, or even an adult who is occasionally or frequently out after dark. There are terrible things that happen in the world every day, and while you should not (and do not) have to live in fear every moment, you can walk around confidently knowing that you have REACT Mobile ready at the touch of a button. Be smart, be ready, REACT.
To learn more about REACT Mobile, how it can help you, and to download it today, visit their website by clicking here. You can even find several videos under their About section which give you more details about exactly how it works.
Disclosure: This is a sponsored post. I received compensation for sharing this post. I chose to share this post with my readers because I believed it could be valuable information. I will continue to only share relevant and valuable information with my readers. This review is the property of Found Frolicking. All photos with the watermark are the property of Found Frolicking, and should not be used or distributed in any way without first receiving permission.
