Where Do You Live?

     After having just moved to a new house a few months ago, I'm finally feeling settled into our new place. With 2 little ones, sometimes things just take longer (you know how that can go). My daughter is approaching 3 1/2 in just a couple months and continues to impress me with all that she knows and has a desire to learn. Something that will be very valuable to her to learn now is her new address, and after sharing the following story with you, I hope it convinces you to make sure your young children know theirs, too!

     I was recently sharing a meal with a friend who also has 2 young children when she told me this shocking story. Her daughter attends day care with a little boy who is not quite 4 years old, and he also has a younger sibling. On Halloween, Mom decided to take the baby back home and pass out candy while Dad took his nearly 4 year old son around the neighborhood to trick-or-treat. Harmless, right?

     Only if you don't lose your child while you're trick-or-treating. And only if you don't even realize you've lost your child you are taking trick-or-treating.

     The last line is shocking, and scary. This unassuming Dad had NO IDEA he had lost his son in the costumed groups of children on Halloween. As Mom was at home opening her door repeatedly to trick-or-treaters, she couldn't have anticipated what she would see next time she opened her door. Her nearly 4 year old son, being escorted home safely by strangers.

     The people looked at the Mom and said, "Is this your son?" to which the Mom grabbed her son with an emphatic, "Yes!" with probably much more to follow. After a myriad of questions in this exchange between Mom and strangers, the strangers (who are really helpful heroes in this story) said, "He told us he was lost and we asked him where he lived. He said he lived on [insert street name]. So we just went door to door trying to find out where his home was." 

     One can only imagine how the phone call between the Mom and Dad went when she called to inform him that the son he was supposed to be taking trick-or-treating was actually at their front door brought home by some very nice strangers. Those are really unnecessary details at this point. What I want you to take away is that this little boy's knowledge of the name of his street name is obviously something that helped him get back to his home. There are so many things we push for our kids to know, but we need to put their home address at the top of their list. Practice this daily. Send your child mail so they can see their name and their address together. Don't delay another day. Teach your child their address, and it may be one of the most helpful and critical pieces of information you ever teach them.