One of the most stressful and scariest parts of being a parent is trying to keep track of your child when you are out in public. When you have more than one child, or several children to keep track of and there is only one of you, it can be extremely nerve-wracking! While I only had three children close together in age, I often had some “extras” along when we were out and about so I developed a few tricks for keeping track of everyone. I have also gathered some ideas from some of my friends who had more heads to keep track of!
A coworker of mine had a blended family of 6 children—all very close together in age. When they went out in public to the mall, the county fair, or even to the park, they utilized a “cap system.” Everyone in the family (parents included) wore these bright red-orange caps so they could quickly spot everyone and round them up. I always thought that was a very keen idea.
Another friend has a family whistle (a word would work well too) and everyone had to learn how to do the family whistle. This way, if someone got lost or they were trying to find each other, they were trained to respond to the family whistle.
When my children were little, we utilized a combination system of secret words and landmarks. For example, I taught my kids to either put their hand on the cart, car, me, etc. when we were in transition. If I was unloading groceries or trying to get the car unlocked and everyone in the car (or out of it), they had to keep their hand on the car until I called their name. When it was time to do something: buckle up and leave, gather everyone up from the playground or someone’s house, etc. We would use a “secret word” and I would give them the word in advance. I know that some families use the same word for everything but for us it made it more fun to have a special, secret word. For example, I would say when we got some place, “When I call out the word spaghetti, it is time to put your shoes on” and my kids thought it was fun trying to listen for the word. The sillier and more obscure the word, the better. When we would get in the car to go somewhere I might say, “Everyone say “turtle” when you have your belt on and are ready to go!” It would then be a race for all the kids to get ready and say “turtle.”
I am sure that there are myriad other suggestions for how to keep track of a brood while out in public. Anyone care to share some clever ideas?
See Also: Keeping Track of Multiple Kids in Public in our FORUMS section