Must see TV

Yours truly has been selected from a prestigious group of stay at home parents to be part of a small panel to appear live, in studio, on #RaisingAmerica with Kyra Phillips tomorrow, Friday August 16th at noon.  Or it could be that not that many people responded to the request and they took everyone that did.  Either way I will be on TV sharing with America all of my words of wisdom on parenting.  Be sure to record, #HLNTV at noon, or better yet just plan to start your weekend early and stay home and watch!

The topic is Missing Children.  Thank goodness we have never had to deal with anything close to a missing child and I hope we never will.  We did have two incidents in the last year when the 3 year old wondered off from us in public places.  And anyone who has had this happen before knows that it is one of the worse feelings you could ever have as a parent.

The first time was when we were in the Children's Museum in Atlanta.  We had just moved down here and we went to the museum on a Saturday.  The place was packed.  My wife and I were split up with the 3 girls all wanting to go in different locations.  At one point all five of us met at an activity and all of a sudden my wife and I both say at the same time "Where is Brigid?".  Thus the panicked search begins.  After a couple of minutes of looking with no luck, Amy finds a staff member and instantly their walkie-talkies are buzzing and the whole staff is searching for her.  I eventually found her in the grocery store part of the museum playing very happily.  The total time from realization that she was not with us to joyous reunion was maybe 10 minutes at most, but in your heart and gut it felt like an hour. 

The second time was just a month ago while back in RI for summer vacation.  And of course it was the little one that decided she wanted to explore another part of the beach.  She claims she was searching for daddy, but what she really did was try to follow her big sister to the neighboring beach club.  Again it was a frantic search that included beach staff, several friends, and family members.  At one point the beach manager asked if we wanted the gates closed and locked.  That sent shivers down my spine thinking that we needed to be that drastic.  Again, thankfully she was found unharmed in about ten minutes, but it seemed like a lot longer.

I hope none of my family members or friends ever have to deal with any type of missing child situation.  And to help you protect your kids, be sure to record or tune in to #HLNTV at noon tomorrow for #RaisingAmerica with Kyra Phillips and special guest Frank Quinn.