It can be every parent's worse nightmare - glancing around when on a trip to the shops to find their child is no longer at their side.
With no sight of their son or daughter, panic can set in - but now one mum has shared her own technique of finding a lost child gleaned from her own experience.
Mum Jess Martin understands the horror of losing her child in a supermarket having gone through the ordeal herself and so revealed her top tips for other frantic parents.
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The Mirror reports how posting under the name @jesmartin, she recently took to TikTok to discuss the 'looking loudly' technique, which helped her find her son the day he wandered off in a shop.
And after her video proved a hit online, Jess has urged all worried parents who find themselves in a similar predicament to take note.
"If you're at an amusement park, zoo, mall, whatever it is, and you look around and your child is no longer with you, what you want to do is start loudly looking for them. Do not start silently looking for them," she explained in the clip.
"You want to look loudly, and what I mean by that is you start shouting their description while you look. It's going to sound like this: I'm looking for a boy, age five, short brown hair, brown eyes, Caucasian, red Nike T-shirt, black shorts, black shoes.
"Now you've got every single person who’s around you looking for your child instead of just you, and best case scenario somebody finds your child and they return them to you."
If it was a worst case scenario, and someone had taken your child, this increases their chances of simply letting them go after hearing everyone immediately looking for them and knowing exactly what they look like.
"You may feel you look stupid doing it, and maybe you do, but it is so much better to look stupid than to be sorry," Jess added.
The mum went on to share a few more tips, which included dressing your children in bright matching colours so they'll be easy to spot while out in public.
"Once I was at a play place and there were three brothers and they were all dressed in neon pink. The only thing I could focus on was those brothers because they stood out so much," she added.
Jess also suggested taking photos of the children before you go out, so you have pictures to show people exactly what they look like on that particular day, as well as writing your phone number on your kids' arms.
It's absolutely terrifying to even think of your child going missing in any circumstances, but in the event of anything happening, these tips could make a real difference.
