How do you mark your kids?

[ImarriedGrumpy]

We also use Safety Tats - www.safetytat.com - and really like them. They last for a couple days for us (depending on how much sweat/sunscreen is on the child). We put them on the inside of DS' arm, and let him know that if he gets separated from us, he should find a CM and show them the tattoo. We also take his picture each morning to show what he's wearing.

Usually DS is so afraid of losing us that he sticks very, very close. When he was little that wasn't the case, and I used a backpack leash to keep him near me in the crowds when he got too heavy for me to carry. I knew he was mature enough to stay near me without it when he started asking me to put it on him because he wanted to go look at something and was afraid he'd get lost. I'm so thankful that he's outgrown the "dash away in a crowd" phase that he went through!

 

[Girimama33]

Saw this twice now in this thread so had to respond. I'm a CM and I have never been trained to look at the back of a button for information. We are actually trained to try and have as little physical contact with the child as possible and to either get the child to hand us or tell us the information (or show the tattoo back of button etc) but we are instructed never to "search" for info. Imagine what someone could do and then cover it up by saying I was searching for parent contact info.

The best methods I have ever come across dealing with lost children at Disney was children who knew exactly who was safe to come to (any CM with a name tag on that has the castle and Walt Disney World on it guest bough ones don't have that on it.) and children who were given a card either in a lanyard or in their pocket that says hi my name is _____ my adult is -------I need help. My adult can be reached at -----. Also putting hotel information is also good so that if it is too long with out the adult we can call the hotel and alert them as well. You wouldn't imagine how many midget left at a park because eom assumes they were with dad and dad assumes they were with mom,

I have a family member that has been an HR executive for Disney Parks, and this is what she suggested. She mentioned that a CM may check the button for information. I assumed it was so the child could easily point to the button when asked any questions by a CM.

 

[MAJPLO]

I'm not scared to touch a child but in this sue happy world it is what large organizations train people to do so that they don't get sued. I'm not the one who made the training manual I just follow what I'm taught from it. I have not lost touch with society but rather follow the procedures set forth by one of my employees. They say don't touch unless the child starts the interaction then that is the rule and that's how I follow it. You want to talk about crazy rules I can tell you a bung of them. CMs are no longer allowed to put Mickey stickers directly on a child with out parent permission first. It seems that not only is it an inappropriate touch issue but also parents were claiming we were ruining expensive clothes. Same for buttons. I use to do birthday celebrations as a CM at a Disney Store and we were told to stop pinning buttons directly to the kids because some parents said it ruined their clothes! We had to hand them the button and let the parents decide. Now I'm just a park CM but there are a lot of rules in place to protect Disney from any sort of lawsuit.

Now I see why a lot of CMs keep their mouth shut on here. We try to help people out by letting them know what we are actually trained or told and then people tell us we are wrong or crazy.

Thank you for sharing your experience. It is helpful.