Mother reveals parenting TikTok tip helped her find missing three-year-old daughter in crowded museum

A mother has emotionally recounted how a TikTok parenting tip helped her locate her three-year-old daughter after she lost sight of the toddler.

In a video uploaded last month, Krista Piper, a wedding photographer and book reviewer from Ohio, revealed that she was recently in the children’s play area of a museum with her children when she found herself unable to find her three-year-old daughter.

According to Piper, as she began to panic and shout her daughter’s name into the “super crowded” play area, she remembered a TikTok she’d seen a year earlier about what to do if a child was lost in a crowd.

“I lost my three year old in a kid’s play place today and thank God for TikTok,” Piper began the video, before revealing: “Another mom actually found her for me, and found her way faster than if I had done what I normally would have done.”

In the video, Piper explained that the incident occurred while she and her children were in a play area that “runs the entire length of this giant science museum,” which she said had a lot of small areas where children could go.

According to the TikToker, she had been talking to another mother they’d come with while keeping an eye on her daughter as the toddler had gone “back and forth” between two different areas of the play place when she realised “all of a sudden” she didn’t know where the three year old was.

“So I ended up actually going the opposite direction of where she ended up because I thought, ‘I didn’t see her go past me,’” Piper recalled, adding that she started to “panic” when she realised she wasn’t where she thought she’d be.

At that point, Piper said she informed her son that he needed to help search for his sister and began calling her daughter’s name.

However, right after she started calling the three-year-old’s name, Piper said she recalled a TikTok that she’d seen more than a year ago about what parents should do if they ever found themselves in a situation where they couldn’t find their child.

“It was of a mom who had lost her kid in, I believe a grocery store, and instead of yelling out the kid’s name, she yelled out the description of what her child was wearing,” Piper remembered. “And she was able to find her kid way faster.

“So that is what I did. I stopped calling out her name and I started yelling ‘little girl, pink shirt, pink Minnie Mouse shirt.’”

As she recalled the moment, which she said probably only spanned a minute to a minute and a half, Piper became emotional as she noted that people probably thought she was “a little crazy” as she called out what her daughter was wearing.

“For me, it felt like an eternity,” she explained.

In the video, Piper then revealed that, as she was yelling out the outfit her daughter was wearing, she began to hear other moms start to yell out the description too in an effort to help her locate the toddler.

“It was the quickest thing I could think of to say and say it loud,” she acknowledged, as she noted that she also could have said her daughter’s age or hair colour.

Piper said she was ultimately reunited with her daughter when another mother yelled out “little girl pink shirt Minnie mouse” after spotting the three year old. “And that was her,” the TikToker confirmed.

In the TikTok, Piper then shared a PSA to other parents, telling her viewers: “So PSA, if you ever lose your child or dog or anything, yell out their description, raise your voice … it got the job done and I found my kid really fast.”

Piper also acknowledged that, if she hadn’t seen the TikTok about the tip, she probably would have gone up to groups of other parents at the museum one by one and asked if they’d seen a little girl in a pink shirt, which she noted would not have had the same impact.

“So hopefully this reaches other parents that, if you are in this situation, shout out your kid’s description, you will find them faster,” Piper concluded.

The video, which has since been viewed more than 600,000 times, has been met with an outpouring of support from other parents, with many appreciative that Piper shared the tip.

“This is so smart! I’m glad you found her quick. We’ve all been there,” one user wrote, while another said: “The moment you got choked up, I did too! I’m so glad everything is okay. I’ll remember this forever now.”

“Genius and I’m so glad you found her safely,” someone else wrote, adding: “No judgement on losing sight of her, they are crafty little creatures.”